Among Titans and Goddesses
by Neptune-Megaz0rd
Summary: After sacrificing their lives to destroy the IMC's Fold Weapon on planet Typhon, residual energy from the Ark sends militia pilot Jack Cooper and his Vanguard Titan BT-7274 into the world of Gamindustri. Teamed up with a certain lilac-haired-CPU-goddess, will this pilot and titan duo be able to save a new world and return to their own? Takes place along the Re;Birth1 Storyline.
1. Prologue: Folded Space

**-Prologue: Folded Space-**

On the frontier planet of Typhon, a major battle was raging across the landscape between the Interstellar Mining Corporation (IMC) and the Militia forces. Both sides locked into a war over the future of the Frontier; with the IMC looking to retake control after their humiliating defeat at Demeter, and with the Militia forces unwilling to accept the former's 'forced occupation' of their colonies. Less than several hours ago, they had just recently discovered the IMC's plan to destroy their entire home planet of Harmony in a single sweep, forcing the militia to surrender unconditionally. The Marauder Corps branch of the militia, along with mercenaries from the 6-4 began an all-out siege towards the IMC's base.

Among the midst of a nearly-destroyed IMC control room stood a towering robotic figure known as a Titan. The lumbering machine was collapsed on the ground along with its pilot, trapped inside the cockpit. Beside them was a mysterious device known as the Fold Weapon; a tool used to bend space and time, with catastrophic results. Something they needed to destroy at all costs.

"Cooper, I require your assistance." The Titan, now known as BT-7274, said to its pilot with garbled distortions in its voice. "My auto-navigation systems are offline. Get me into the injector assembly and control station, we must do this together."

' _Got it,'_ the militia rifleman-now-promoted-pilot known as Jack Cooper thought to himself. He began to manually operate the controls of the Vanguard Titan while simultaneously attempting to treat his wounds during his previous engagement against the Apex-Predator pilot known as Slone. "Grk!" He began to wince in pain as he began to self-administer a stim-pack over his injuries.

"Pilot, are you alright? My current damaged systems do not allow me to detect any changes in vital signs effectively," BT had said in response to its pilot's grunts of pain. Cooper could only ignore his Titan's concern over his well-being, as he placed his entire focus on multitasking.

"Incoming signal from Commander Sarah Briggs. Boosting Signal," BT suddenly said.

"BT! Cooper!" The radio voice began to speak frantically. "Our ground teams can't make it there in time. You've got to find a way to destroy the Fold Weapon from the inside, there's no other way!"

"Commander Briggs, I believe I have a solution," replied BT. "In the Ark's exposed state, a Titan's battery unit may be able to overload the Fold Weapon's control panel."

"In other words, set off the explosion here on Typhon instead." Cooper commented.

"Correct."

"Alright then Cooper, send us dropship coordinates for an extraction point. We're getting you and your Titan's SERE kit out of there," said commander Briggs over the radio.

"Negative," the Vanguard-class Titan replied. "The calculated blast radius will be too large, and the current emissions on the Ark will interfere with the ship's jump control navigation."

"Dammit!" Cooper said to himself. "So, now what?"

"During our previous engagement against the Apex Predator, Slone," BT began speaking again. "the pilot appeared to be using a device similar to the one found on Major Anderson's body."

"That explains how she was able to keep phasing in and out of combat for so long, and become such a pain in the ass to target-lock" Cooper jokingly remarked. He should've known that these paid mercenary elites for the IMC must've had some tricks up their sleeve.

"Correct," replied BT. "Pilot, if we were to activate the time manipulation device at just the precise time, there is a 15% for us to survive the blast radius, allowing us to signal a safe rendezvous point with the Militia fleet." The brief shift in time would give Cooper and his Titan ally enough time to signal Commander Briggs for a safe extraction point. "Transferring partial AI functions to commander Briggs."

"And the other eighty-five percent?" Cooper asked as he got out of the Titan and began to search through the Ion titan wreckage containing Slone's corpse.

"Unknown. Results of incomplete teleportation may lead to catastrophic injury or death. Similar to Major Anderson's predicament"

"Those aren't exactly great odds…" Cooper commented as he pulled the time-travelling device off Slone's mangled body along with her CAR submachinegun. After strapping the gauntlet onto his arm, the pilot scavenged a few batteries off the destroyed Ion titan, tossing them to BT. "Rather not end up wedged between two different buildings and half the person I once was."

"They are our only odds," the Vanguard-class Titan retorted before jamming the battery units into in injector control panel, causing it to overload and begin a failsafe explosion countdown.

 ***Fold Weapon Malfunction. Initiating Fail-safe Destruction Sequence*** A large timer hologram began to project through the central corridor, counting down from thirty seconds.

"Trust me," BT calmly said to its pilot before Cooper jumped back into its cockpit. "Protocol 1: link to pilot. Protocol 2: uphold the mission, we have successfully destabilized the Folding Weapon into self-destruction. Protocol 3: protect the pilot.

"I sure as hell hope so," the commander remarked before ending the radio transmission. "We'll meet you on the other side. Good luck, to both of you. Briggs out."

"I've integrated the time travelling device onto your AI system. Don't worry BT, I'm not going anywhere." Cooper said from the cockpit as he his thumb was over the mounted switch.

"Copy that, pilot. Activating time-distortion in 3 . . . 2 . . . 1. . ."

Just as they had activated the time travelling device, a bright blue flash of energy from the now destroyed Folding Weapon appeared before the two, blinding them. Before either of them could react, residual energy from the Ark caused the pilot and his Titan to vanish. Leaving behind the bodies of dead IMC grunts and titans in the process, before a massive explosion fractured the very planet's surface and core.

* * *

*Meanwhile, on a Militia fleet ship orbiting the now destroyed planet of Typhon*

"Shit! Sarah, we just lost signal of BT and Cooper, and I'm not picking up and scans of them across time either!" Screeched Barker.

"It can't be…" the commander thought to herself for a moment. If they couldn't detect any signals or readings from BT or Cooper, especially through primitive means like Morse and binary code, then there was only one possible outcome for the two; a solemn realization for the both of them.

' _They . . . they didn't make it after all.'_

' _Harmony, the Militia calls this place their headquarters, but millions of other call it home…'_ Briggs thought to herself. The Marauder Corps commander began to give a salute towards the destroyed planet. "Pilot Cooper, BT, a lot of people owe their lives to both of you, thank you."

After a brief moment of silence among the rest of the saluting passengers, Briggs continued. "Barker, set a course for Harmony, take us home."

"You got it."

* * *

*Somewhere, in what appeared to be in the middle of an empty void, a familiar SRS-painted Titan containing its pilot could be seen drifting in the vast emptiness*

"Grrrgh, hmmrph…" Groaned Cooper as he began to open his eyes and move his arms. "What was that blast? I thought we were goners for a moment there."

"Pilot, are you alright?"

"Yeah, I'm fine…but, where the hell are we?" the now fully-awakened pilot asked his Titan partner.

"Accessing files…location unknown. It appears that I am also unable to contact Commander Briggs through all forms of communication."

"Even through binary and Morse code? What about your transferred functions?" Cooper wondered, as he began to activate the switch for time warping. "How about we jump back and signal them from there, BT?" A small humming sound began to emit from the arm-mounted device

*buzz*, *click*, *click* The area began to flash in an instant in bluish light. But against his avail, nothing happened.

"Well, crap." The pilot said to himself. _'Alright Jack, no time to panic now. We just need to find a way back into our original timeline, and we should be good,'_ the mildly distressed pilot thought to himself. "…So how are you holding up, BT?"

"On the contrary to our current predicament, it seems the time distortion has fully restored all critical functions and armor systems to standard condition. Additionally, we have successfully fulfilled protocol 3, protect the pilot."

' _Yeah, for the time being,'_ Cooper thought to himself. Riflemen training taught him how to survive in conditions of scarce resources several weeks at a time, but not when there's _no_ resources at all. Even he knew better himself that the best pilots out there can die to starvation or dehydration, it was only a matter of time until he was one of them.

"Pilot, incoming transmission signal." The sudden announcement threw Cooper off his current train of thought and seat.

"Who's it from?" _'Hopefully it's the rest of the Militia fleet,'_ the young pilot thought to himself.

"Decrypting message, source of transmission appears to be from an entity designated as, _'Histoire'_ "

 **-End of Prologue-**

 **A/N: Hi everyone, Megazord here! I hope you all enjoyed the introduction chapter of this Neptunia x Titanfall crossover. Seems that Cooper and BT have a new mission in their hands real soon. Rest assured, I don't plan on any OoC, Self-inserts, or Lemons in the fanfic. Though it seems that Titanfall 2 characters haven't been added to the category database yet (seriously, where's my Jack C. and BT-7274 on here?). That aside, this story plans to take place in an 'alternate ending' to Titanfall 2's campaign and into R;B1's storyline (sorry Nisa and Gust!). Next chapter should be coming out real soon!**

 **Please be sure to R &R, thanks!**


	2. Chapter 1: SSDD

_Disclaimer: the Hyperdimension Neptunia series is owned by Idea Factory International, and the Titanfall series is owned by Respawn Entertainment. Both franchises belong to their respective owners._

 **-Chapter 1: "SSDD (Same 'Stuff', Different Dimension)"-**

Inside the Titan's cockpit was its roughly twenty-three year old militia pilot, wearing standard SRS-issued armor over reddish-colored military garbs along with a dark-brown scarf and helmet which had an almost alien-like visor to it. His name was Jack Cooper, a class-three rifleman now promoted pilot for the Militia SRS, or Special Recon Squadron. Promoted, in the sense that he was given his late mentor, Captain Tai Lastimosa's pilot gear and titan as a dying wish. In just a short span of less than a week, he had just been thrust into the pilot's seat behind enemy lines, eliminated several of the IMC's highest-profile mercenary pilots, and saved the entire homeworld of Harmony. Feats the frontier militia would revere as a hero.

But he was no hero, not by any means. Or at least, didn't feel as if he deserved to be one. _'The true heroes were the ones that sacrificed their lives for the sake of the frontier: Lastimosa, Anderson, the 9th Rifleman Division, and the thousands of lives lost on Typhon,'_ he thought to himself.

"Decrypting message." Said the giant metal-cladded Titan known as BT-7274, or BT for short. "Source of transmission appears to be from an entity designated as _'Histoire'_. Unable to detect location."

Cooper knew that various regions in the frontier were notorious for raiders sending 'false signals' to attract and lure unsuspecting cargo ships into traps. In fact, the same tactics were used to cut supply chains disrupt enemy formations, both for and against the Militia forces. _'Whatever it is, hopefully it's not another ambush set up by the IMC.'_ Last thing he wanted was to deal with another enemy pilot hell-bent on killing him.

Then again, what other option do they have? Sit in this so-called empty void for the rest of their existence? After a few moments of thinking, Cooper finally came to a decision.

*Sigh* "BT, open comms with this 'Historie' person," said the pilot expecting an IMC or freelance raider's demand for their surrender. "I wanna hear what they have to say."

"Opening communications. Boosting Signal," replied BT. A small communication hologram appeared over the cockpit's heads-up-display.

"(Hello, can anybody hear me?)" said a disembodied voice over the communication display.

 _'A little girl? I sure as hell never thought the militia recruits child soldiers this young.'_ Cooper, thought to himself. Nonetheless, it certainly wasn't IMC, not by a long shot. Confused yet pleasantly surprised, at least something went his way for once.

*Ahem* "This is pilot Jack Cooper, of the Frontier Militia's 9th Rifleman Division along with my Titan BT-7274. Who might I be speaking to?"

"(My name is Histoire. Please forgive me pilot Jack Cooper, but there is something I must ask of you...)" the mysterious voice replied.

 _'Ahh, I get it now. 'Histoire', must be her callsign among the militia's covert ops unit. That might explain why he's talking to the voice of a little girl. Deception is a key asset in gathering intel, and the IMC would never suspect children to be militia spies. Although the thought of recruiting child soldiers doesn't sit too well with me.'_ The pilot simply brushed off that lingering thought in his head and continued.

"Sure, but first thing's first. Can you explain where in the world are we? My friend here can't seem to match our location to any stellar map on the frontier, nor can he pinpoint the exact location of your vessel."

"(Vessel?)" the confused voice replied. "(Allow me to better introduce myself to you and your companion. I am Histoire, the tome and oracle that has assisted the goddesses of Celestia for several generations. Right now you are currently in the subspace of Gamindustri, where I am currently imprisoned in.)"

 _'Tome? Like a book? No way. Covert ops must be really strict with relaying intel, that has to be it,'_ Cooper thought to himself. _'Still, Celestia? Gamindustri? Those are odd names for Frontier planets, although the former does sound like some kind of remote facility.'_ The pilot raised nervous smirk on his face before communicating with his Titan. "BT, you getting all of this?"

"Yes. Currently searching though frontier and stolen IMC databases. Conclusion: pilot, there appears to be no records of "Gamindustri" or "Celestia" on the frontier map or in any of my archives."

 _'This isn't a militia spy. This...person, was something completely different. Did their time traveling end up causing something worse?'_ Cooper's mood immediately changed to a more serious tone as he wanted to be completely sure as to what was going on. "Just HOW were you able to reach out to us?" he asked the disembodied tome with a slight of frustration in his voice.

"(There was a sudden fold in space and time across several dimensions occurring simultaneously caused by sudden disruption. Among the temporal rift was an entity attempting to alter the fabrication, but the unstable forces of the rift had nearly torn its existence. On the brink of perishing, I was able to muster my strength and pull you into this realm.)"

The pilot's head dropped completely in an almost-defeated state, with his hands covering the top of his face. "You mean to say...we _didn't_ survive the Fold Weapon's explosion? Are we...are we dead?"

"(My deepest apologies, but due to the intense force and disruption surrounding you and your companion at the time, I was unable to get a clear view of what was going on with your circumstances.)"

After a short pause, BT began to speak. "Pilot, it is plausible that residual energy released from the Ark that, under normal circumstances, would instantly vaporize all matter, has instead sent us to into this dimension due to the installed time-distortion device on your arm.

"(While I am not familiar with your dimension's technology, your friend is right, pilot Jack Cooper. Please do not be afraid, you are most certainly not dead at all. The thoughts, memories, and existence you and your friend have are very much true.)"

Cooper was on the verge of breaking tears of joy (or relief, in this case) at the surprising news. "Sheeesh, you almost gave me an aneurysm for a moment there. I almost thought I was going to have a panic attack like that poor bastard Carl back in rifleman boot-camp!"

"Pilot, I advise that now is not the best time to discuss your experience as a rifleman in the militia. I detect readings of radioactive energy rapidly heading towards our direction at an increasing rate of forty-seven-point-two-percent."

"(Correct, our time here is becoming short, any unbound entities here in the subspace are forced back onto the surface of Gamindustri, so allow me to explain everything to you as soon as possible, Jack Cooper.)"

"If you say so," the pilot said as he began adjusting his time-traveling device. "BT, looks like we have a new mission, huh? Make sure to record everything she's saying."

Immediately, another item appeared on the robot's heads-up-display. With this program appearing to take notes on everything the female voice was going to say. "Copy that, pilot."

"(Thank you, allow me to explain as quickly as I can. Two worlds exist in the realm of Gamindustri. That of the humans, and that of where the CPUs [Console Patron Units] reside, known as Celestia. The CPUs, or Goddesses, gain strength through their faith of humanity, obtained by the means of Shares. In turn, the humans gain the CPU's protection and establish a nation respectively.)"

"Almost like a system of feudalism or serfdom that I've learned back in the core-system's curriculum, with a ruler providing land and protection to those loyal to them."

"(Precisely, that's how things were supposed to be. However, the former goddess and I broke this balance by creating four separate CPUs, and in turn, four separate nations.)"

"Lemme guess, Gamindustri broke out into all-out war, becoming a battle for control and attrition over these 'shares' resources. With each side trying to wipe off the other three?"

Judging by her brief silence, Cooper probably guessed correctly. "(Ahh, yes. The Console War. How did you know?")

"Let's just say that where my partner and I come from, the frontier is constantly at war across several worlds over control of resources and territory, with one side constantly trying to destroy the other by any means at a time."

"I believe the term you used before was 'gone to shit' back at the IMC's sewage facility." BT remarked.

"Not now, BT." Cooper replied. _'I was talking about the smell down there, not the situation itself. But then again, that probably also fits the war in general, especially before Demeter and Operation Fracture.'_

"Anyways," Cooper moving that thought aside. "If you're trying to find some diplomat to restore peace to your world, you're probably looking at the wrong person. I'm just a soldier fighting for a cause he believes in."

"(What if I told you that there was a way to end this war and save Gamindustri from destroying itself?)" Histoire replied to the pilot and his Titan. "(As it stands, I am currently sealed in this realm, unable to free myself from this prison. I ask that you and your companion assist in releasing me, for I will be able to use the power of shares in order to end Gamindustri's destruction restore balance to the four lands.)"

"Pilot, the shares that Miss Histoire his described appear to match records from the Ark and Fold Weapon's properties." BT commented.

"These 'shares' that you speak of, would they be able to send my friend and I back where we came from?"

"(Shares are a mysterious power unlike any other, with the ability to alter reality as you or I know it. Whether or not it can send others across time and space, I do not know. But I will assist in whatever way I can to bring you back to your timeline.)"

"Pilot, voice pattern analysis indicates that she is not lying. I advise that we assist in Miss Histoire's endeavors if we are to return to the frontier. As we have successfully completed our previous task of eliminating the IMC's Fold Weapons, it is up to your choice as to what our next course of action shall be."

Hearing his Titan giving him the choice, Cooper leaned back on his cockpit seat, sighing to himself. "Very well, where do we start?" He said, nodding in reassurance.

"(You'll help?)" Histoire asked in astonishment. "(Words cannot express my gratitude, thank you. The task, that I ask of you, is to gather the key fragments scattered across each of the four nations, in order to free me from this prison and save Gamindustri.)"

"And in turn, you'll be able to help return us home, is that correct?" Cooper question the disembodied voice.

"(I will do everything in my power to assist you two)" explained Histoire before pausing for a moment. "(I understand that this is a lot of information to take in all at once, but there's one last thing I'd like to ask; Do you happen to believe everything I'm saying?)"

"Shares? Goddesses? Computers? That's alot to take in if you ask me." Causing the mysterious tome to frown for a second. The pilot paused for a brief moment before continuing. "But considering all the stuff I've seen back on Typhon, I wouldn't be surprised at all if any of this was true. So yes, I do in-fact believe you. Plus, if what you're saying really is true, gathering these 'key fragments' that you're talking about might be our only way back to the frontier."

"(Thank you, Pilot Jack Cooper and BT-7274. You have my sincerest thanks.)" Histoire smiled with an expression of relief before continuing. "(Our time here is nearly ending; I will contact you with further details as soon as I can in the near future. The journey will be full of peril and dangerous, but I believe that you and the goddesses will succeed. Good luck, you two.)"

"Protocol 2: Uphold the mission. Our objective is to rendezvous with the goddesses for additional debriefing, as well as retrieve the key fragments across this world in order to save Gamindustri."

"Goddesses? So we're not the only ones trying to save the world, huh BT?" The young pilot said to himself. But before he could even finish his thoughts, an immense energy came approaching them.

"Currently experiencing energy distortion, please brace for incoming turbulence, pilot."

* * *

Before they knew it, a blinding wave of light caused Cooper to cover his visor. When the light subsided, found himself still inside the Titan, but freefalling several hundred meters above ground.

"BT, what's going on?" Cooper frantically asked his Titan.

"We are currently descending at terminal velocity at an altitude of approximately 450m and dropping."

"Yeah, I can kinda see that," mocked Cooper.

"I detect sarcasm."

Considering that this is a little over half the altitude of a regular Titanfall procedure (and much less than the Militia's assault on Typhon), Cooper would've been at ease from a drop this high. At least, if it wasn't for him looking through the Titan's monitor display outside, only to glance upon a young unconscious girl beside them falling at the same speed.

 _'She's not gonna make it…'_

The young pilot didn't have time to think. He had to act fast, and real soon, or else the sheer force of impact would turn this girl into a human pancake. The adrenaline rush of his instincts began to kick in.

Pointing his finger towards the young unconscious girl falling alongside them, Cooper needed to improvise. "BT, get me closer to her and open the cockpit. I'm jumping out."

"Pilot, I must warn you. Due to the intense time distortion, your jump kit requires a few more seconds of recali-"

"Dammit BT, just open the hatch already!"

"Very well." The Titan immediately opened the front cockpit, allowing Cooper to jump out instantly and safely catch the young preteen midair. His next course of action was to activate the pilot suit's jump kit and descend at a safe speed towar-"

 ***[JUMP KIT UNAVAILABLE. CURRENTLY RECALIBRATING THURSTERS TO ADJUST FOR LOWER BODY MASS READING.]***

The display on his helmet began flashing with text.

"C'mon, c'mon, c'mon, c'mon! Hurry up and recalibrate already!" Cooper said out loud to himself.

At a first glance, the young girl was relatively shorter than Cooper and had short, chin-length, messy, lilac hair that stuck out near the ends. Along with a pair of cross-shaped clips over her two bangs, she had seemed to be wearing some kind of short-sleeved white hoodie with blue and purple lining around the edges along with a large, round purple N-shaped clip. Two strings resembling USB cable plugs came from the hood as well. Below, the young girl was wearing a short, fringed purple dress along with thigh-high blue and white striped stockings.

 ***[Age: 17 - Sex: MALE - Race: CAUCASIAN - WELCOME BACK, PILOT JACK COOPER.]***

Wait a second, did he just hear his helmet say seventeen years old? That can't be right, the calibration must be acting up today. At least his jump pack was fully operational, to say the least. Disregarding the first comment his helmet displayed, Cooper activated his jump pack's 'impact compensation' utility. Boosters located on his lower back abdomen and legs began functioning, causing him to descend at a much safer speed towards the ground, to where BT was already standing on a crater of dirt awaiting his pilot's arrival. Cooper eventually landed on a soft pile of dirt and grass on the outskirts of a futuristic city, holding the unconscious girl in an almost princess-carry manner.

 _'A kid? What's a civilian doing on Typhon? Wait a second, we're not even on Typhon.'_ Catching up on his own actions and thoughts earlier, Cooper could only wonder to himself as to why he even helped the young girl. Was it out of the kindness of his own heart? That couldn't be it. All he could remember was a voice inside his head telling him to, 'save Neptune'. For all he knew, the sheer G-forces without any protection could have already killed her.

"Although it appears that she has sustained several external injuries, her vital readings appear to be in stable condition. But I still recommend we seek help immediately."

Cooper was relieved for a second time today. At least his antics didn't end up killing another person this time. _'Hopefully she might be able to explain where the hell we are,'_ he thought to himself before replying to BT. "Sure thing. Lemme take a breather first, okay?"

"Very well."

After gently placing the unconscious preteen next to BT down on her side in order to prevent her airways from blocking, the pilot finally got a chance to look at his surroundings. Looking up at the twilight sky, he saw a nearly full moon among the view of a clear night sky, with no clouds, dust, or debris floating in the air to his surprise. He could clearly see the stars and constellations, although they resembled nothing back on the frontier worlds. For once, he was actually in a relatively peaceful place. On the horizon past his forested surroundings the pilot could see a futuristic metropolis that somewhat resembled Angel City, if not for the purple and blue neon lights around it.

 _'This couldn't be real. This has to be a hallucination, isn't it?'_

"We're not in the frontier anymore? Are we, BT." Cooper turned to face his Titan companion.

"Despite suitable atmospheric conditions fit for human life, this topography does not appear to match any frontier planet."

Cooper suddenly began to feel an sharp pain coming from his lower right abdomen. The intense, blinding pain caused his body to collapse on the ground as he was gripping his sides in an attempt to alleviate the pain. _'Shit, did my wound re-open?_ _'_ He thought to himself while winching over. His vision began to blur.

"Pilot, your vitals indicate significant volumes of blood loss to internal bleeding. Medical protocol suggests rest and application of a coagulant. Initiating short-range distress signal. I detect a nearby individual approaching."

Before Cooper even had a chance to answer back, he began to lose consciousness. Just before the exhausted pilot passed out completely, he noticed someone running towards them with what appeared to be a tote bag?

* * *

A vision, or flashback, was playing in Cooper's mind several minutes before the Fold Weapon's destruction:

 _"Congratulations, you killed some of my top subordinates. Today's your lucky day pilot. I'm not going to kill you. But, you don't get to kill me,_ either." The tall individual wearing a white and red sleeveless IMC pilot vest known as Kuben Blisk said to Cooper as he approached the unlucky pilot trapped in his Titan. _"I don't kill for free. I've already done my job; delivering the Ark to this place. They never said anything about what happens next. Should'a put that on my contract."_ The infamous war-criminal leader of the Apex Predators proceeded to pull out what appeared to be a playing card defaced with their logo crudely inked on it, before tossing it in front of the helpless Titan's display. _"Take care of this, will ya'? Just in case you wanna start working for yourself, hero."_

 _'You kill me, you're better. I kill you, I'm better... No fun killing a good pilot unless he can put up a fight."_ Blisk said, as he walked away from the pilot.

* * *

Cooper groaned as his eyes suddenly burst open in surprise out of his 'dream'. Lying on what felt to be a bed, he began examining his surroundings. The room was pink, very pink, with a resemblance to pre-war design back in the frontier. Whoever's room it belonged to seemed to be obsessed with the color pink, or could be another IMC prefab building. The pilot soon noticed his helmet missing, along with several articles of clothing and armor pieces from his pilot jump pack, leaving him with the pants of his spacesuit on. Tape bandages appeared to be tightly, yet carefully, wrapped over his wounded area.

 _'Just where the hell am I?'_ Cooper thought to himself, as he continued to examine to room on bedside while wondering where the rest of his suit was.

His attention was suddenly drawn to an approaching young woman wearing a beige wool sweater and red plaid skirt along with a headband containing a "C" logo on it. The same congo-pink haired girl with bright eyes of the same color he saw a glimpse of before blacking out.

"Uh...hi?" he said as the first thing out of instinct.

"Oh my! I never thought you would wake up this quickly!" The ecstatic young woman said high pitch before greeting him with a warm smile "Great, you're recovering! Does anything hurt? Are you feeling well?"

"I think so, though my lower chest still feels pretty sore. Well I'm not dead, at least," he reassured himself as he began to move himself up from his resting position. The sharp pain began to reemerge. "Grrk-!"

"Careful! If you move too quickly, you'll reopen your wounds." Cried the pinkette as she slowly helped the pilot sit upright on the mattress "You're still recovering. Please, take it easy, minster...?-"

*Yawn* "Shuuuuuut… up! Oh crackers, is it breakfast already?" another voice said.

Both the young pinkette and Cooper turned their attention towards the lilac-haired girl on the other side of the small bed, stirring out of the mattress sheets.

"Well, you seem to be perfectly fine," sarcastically remarked Cooper as he turned to face the young preteen.

"Yup! Never had such a great rest in my life!" She sprang up saying with excitement before realizing her surroundings, primarily the pilot sitting besides her on the bed. "...Hey, who are you and what are you doing in bed with? I'm waitin' for an explanation buster-!"*Gasp* "Wait a second, were you peaking on me while I was asleep? No! You trying to do some kinky H-game shenanigans with me while I was out cold, weren't you?!"

"Kid, with an injury like this, sex is the last thing on my mind right now." Cooper said pointing a finger towards the large bandaged area on his chest. _'At least she didn't call me some lecherous old pervert or anything,'_ he thought to himself. _'What makes her think I'd be interested in her? Did she hurt her head THAT hard?'_

"Hey! Who are you calling a kid? You're not that much older than me or that girl over there!" she interrupted, pointing to the third person in the room who appeared to be shocked from the lilac-haired girl's sudden energy.

 _'Not much older than her? Pretty sure we're nowhere in the same age range'_ Cooper thought to himself before turning to face the pinkette. "Oh yeah, thanks for patching up my wounds earlier." Extending his free arm that wasn't holding on to the bandages on his abdomen, he introduced himself. "Jack Cooper, titan pilot of the Frontier Militia."

"Ahh, I almost forgot to introduce myself!" The startled girl said before regaining her composure. "My name's Compa. It's nice to meet you, mister Cooper."

"Just Cooper is fine, no need for the whole formalities and all," he said to the young pinkette.

"Frontier militia?" The lilac-haired preteen standing besides the pilot asked out loud, ignoring her previous 'accusations' against the pilot being a pervert several moments before. "Ohhhh, I get it now. You're like some kind of ultra-badass super-soldier, aren't you?" She asked as her eyes lit up in excitement.

"Heh... hardly," he answered back before continuing. "How about you, shorty? You haven't even introduced yourself yet."

"Oh right." The lilac-haired girl said to her before suddenly spranging up and exclaiming energetically, "I'm Neptune!"

"It's nice to meet you, Nep-..." Compa stuttered, blinking in thought as she attempted to pronounce the girl's name. "Nepee... Nepku... Nepin... Nepta-..."

"Neptune, like the eighth planet in the core star system, huh..." Cooper said to himself as he tried to recall the "voice" in his head before he had passed out earlier.

"Access files," said a familiar robotic voice approaching from the room's windows. "The name 'Neptune' also refers to the ancient Roman deity of ocean and sea."

"Eeeeek!" Neptune shrieked comically as she pointed her shaking finger towards a large hulking mech peering outside the apartment's window. "It's a Gundaaaaaaaam!"

Cooper raised a confused eyebrow towards the genki-girl. "What in the world are you talking about, Neptune?"

Meanwhile, Compa was still caught in her own thought bubble over Neptune's name. "...Nepuu-... Nepel... Neput-... Nepat-..."

"Correction: my primary structure neither resembles that of a firearm or geographical barrier construction," the Titan replied before facing Neptune. "Hello, I am BT-7274. A Vanguard-class Titan of the Militia SRS, or Special Recon Squadron for short. But you may call me BT."

"Bee Tee, like two letters?" said the confused Neptune. "How about I call you Beetsy instead?"

"Very well. My pilot does not appear to have any objections to your request," the Vanguard-class Titan said as it didn't seem to recognize Cooper facepalming as a sign of disapproval, or in this case, embarrassment. "Cataloging the term, 'Beetsy' into alias database. "

"...Nep-Nep!" Compa suddenly shouted out of revelation, before recognizing the giant metalclad standing outside her room. "Oh, mister Robot! Your friend's awake," she said cheerfully.

"Nep-Nep? Oooo, I like that name!" The gleeful Neptune said to Compa. "It's much better than Neptuna!"

Ignoring the growing conversation between Compa and Neptune, Cooper gave a sigh of relief towards his Titan. "It's been a while. Good to see you again, BT."

"Correction: approximately ten hours have passed since you lost consciousness. Miss Compa volunteered to assist in the recovery process for you and miss Neptune. She insisted on carrying both you and miss Neptune to the building complex herself."

"All by yourself? That's cool, thanks! You're a lot stronger than you look." Neptune said astonished.

"After evaluating her capacity to carry heavy masses without any difficulties, it appears that miss Compa's upper-body strength far exceeds your individual readings, pilot." BT continued.

Cooper heard Neptune quietly snickering in the background. "Pfffft, somebody forgot in invest their skill points in STR," she sneered.

The young pilot was considering replying to his Titan's unnecessary comment, but he preferred not to possibly upset the pinkette that saved his life. Though he refused to believe a young girl like her could carry two unconscious bodies, let alone one that had several kilograms of armor on it, at the same time. _'Very funny, BT,'_ he thought to himself.

"Thanks!" Compa said. "I attend a nursing school. Transporting limp bodies is part of our training, so I'm used to it!"

 _'A nurse huh... so that explains alot,'_ Cooper thought.

"By the way Nep-Nep, you're bruised still. I forgot to put your bandages on, let me take a look."

"Huh? Uhh... okay," Neptune answered plainly.

"Right. Let's get those clothes off you first," Compa nodded.

 _'Oh boy,'_ Cooper thought to himself. He'd rather not give this purple-hair maniac here an actual reason to call him a pervert, and would prefer to keep his own sense of sanity for lack of a better word. So he decided to briefly vacate the room and find his gear. The pilot turned to face Compa's direction while covering his eyes with his entire arm. "Say, you happen to know where the rest of my clothes and helmet are?"

"Ahh, right! I put all your stuff in the bathroom tub to clean." Compa answered back she proceeded to strip the petite lilac-hair girl naked. "Should be the first door to your left, you can't miss it."

"Sure thing, thanks!" He replied before sprinting out the room and closing the door. "Just tell me when you two are finished, that way I don't walk back in on something I shouldn't." Though the pair didn't seem to hear the latter of what Cooper said, as Compa was too busy wrapping bandages around Neptune.

Despite Cooper's efforts to 'vacate' the premises, the hysterical voices of the occupants could still be heard though the door, startling the pilot as he made his way into the restroom.

"Okay, then I'll use what I have. Please let me know if it's too tight. This way... that way... loop it over..."

"Huh? Nrrrg, h-hold on, slow down! Be carefu-"

"I don't want it to come loose or you'll trip over it! Hmph, hah! There we g-"

"Ahhh-guuuuh-wooooo! Ow! Ow! This is way too tight. I'm gonna snap, can't breathe, can't make... more story... dialogue!"

"Nep-Nep...? Oh no! Did I do it too tight after all? Please get a hold of yourself. I'll unwrap you right n-!"

"Stop... s-stop! It's tighter now! You're just tangling me up! Ack, g-gimme scissors... gimme now! Put 'em in my hands and I'll do it myself...!"

* * *

 **-End of Chapter 1-**

 **A/N: Hey everyone! Megazord here! I hope you all enjoyed BT and Cooper's first run-in with the Neptunia cast. Still need to see if longer/short chapters work best. Hopefully my intro wasn't too drawn out; been a while since I clearly remembered the exact dialogue and conversations verbatim in Re;Birth1. Also, first time doing dialogue heavily formatted and organized like this; had to take some inspiration and ideas off of other Neptunia crossovers such as HeeroUzuki,** **vocaloidHM01, and ZuttoAragi. (Thank you so much in advanced!) Allow me to discuss a bit about Cooper and our favorite Vanguard-class Titan, BT-7274. Let's just say the power of 'shares' isn't exclusive to the four goddesses, and that two of them will have alot more "toys" to play with in the near future.**

 **For lack of a better word, time-shifting with device mounted on his arm (basically, an 'upgraded' or more stable version of the one found on Op Grizzly during the "Effect and Cause" campaign mission) malfunctioned partially, causing him to temporarily age backwards to around the HDN cast's age appearances. Rest assured, I don't intend to go for any 'Cooper x [Neptunia Character]' parings in this fanfiction, nor do I intend to turn him into some 'harem-king' teenager's urge that only thinks with his dick (i.e: Issei from DxD). The "age transformation excuse" will more than likely be used for the purpose of contextual humor only (see bellow for BT's section). For the sake of giving Cooper a bit more tools to use in his kit, he'll also be using some of the abilities/items exclusive to multiplayer (e.g. Pulse Blade, Grappling Hook, Decoys, etc.)**

 **As for BT, I think we can all pretty much agree that our favorite Vanguard-class titan fits the whole "Literal-Minded Blissfully-Unaware AI" archetype to a tee. And I intend to take good advantage of that (as seen in this chapter) throughout the story; with BT unintentionally joking, shipping, or pairing our pilot with the other goddesses _very lightly_ (much less than the whole 'yuri-undertones' you'd see in some slice-of-life anime) due to Cooper's current age and, *ahem* 'hormone-levels,' as BT would like to put it. As for BT's current weapons loadouts following their battle with Slone:**

 **Expedition : BT's standard loadout, relatively undamaged or exhausted of ammunition currently  
Tone: weapons and tool moderately worn-out and used up, especially with Tone's tracker-rockets, with the exception of sonar lock  
Scorch: very limited on resources, alot of its tools/utilities moderately damaged due to stress and tear  
Brute: besides sharing the same secondary weapons as Expedition, pretty much totaled  
Ion: limited weapon capacity, especially with the laser shot and tripwires  
Ronin: main shotgun destroyed, forced to use it's melee sword  
Northstar: relatively undamaged, except for the cluster missile pods  
Legion: moderately exhausted weapon munitions, but still functioning **

**Don't worry everyone, I intend for there to be plenty of action in the next chapter showing off BT and Cooper's badassary, as well as Neptune's first transformation into HDD form.**

 **For those that still might be on winter vacation, enjoy the rest of your holidays. Will try to reply to reviews in the post-A/N for next chapter. Till then, please be sure to rate and review, thanks!**

 _ **P.S.: Already emailed staff about adding Cooper and BT to the Titanfall character list. Still waiting for them to reply or add them back anytime now...**_


	3. Chapter 2: Valiant Purple

_Disclaimer: the Hyperdimension Neptunia series is owned by Idea Factory International, and the Titanfall series is owned by Respawn Entertainment. Both franchises belong to their respective owners._

* * *

 **-Chapter 2: "Valiant Purple"-**

Cooper couldn't believe what he saw before his eyes in the bathroom mirror. It was a younger version of... himself?

"What the hell? This can't be right at all," he tried to rationalize with himself as he splashed some water on his face "I'm just tired. I just need to wash my face, that's all." After washing his face in cold water in an attempted to 'wake' him up from this so called 'hallucination', Cooper went to examine the armor pieces and jump pack that were carefully placed into the bathtub. They appeared to be recently cleaned, albeit rather haphazardly with several specks of stubborn grime and dirt still on the plates. "Baby wipes and towels? Did a much better job than what I would've done. Will probably need to thank her later, to say the least," the now de-aged pilot said to himself as carefully put his armor back on, readjusting the harnesses and straps as well. "Anyways, maybe BT could explain why all this is happening," telling himself as held each side of the pilot helmet in his hands.

"Pilot, based off calculations, I believe I have came up with with a potential conclusion," the helmet suddenly spoke.

Surprised that BT could respond to him that quickly, Cooper almost forgot that his Titan transferred partial AI controls to speak outside using his helmet as well. "Go on..." he answered back to the object held in his hands.

"Due to a partial-malfunction in the device obtained from Slone, the blast radius from the Ark caused an alteration in your genetic data, likely causing your physical appearance to appear approximately 2192 days younger."

The running hypothesis BT gave confirmed Cooper's suspicions, dropping his helmet and slumping on the wall in shock as he gazed at the wrist-mounted device. If what his Titan said was true, than the fleet militia would likely consider both of them already MIA. Even if he did make it back to the frontier, would he still be the same person? How would he be able to convince them he wasn't some straggler that tagged along with his Titan. With the number of militia recruits increasing by the thousands each day, it's very doubtful that he'd find a familiar face out there. Best case being the techs forcibly wipe his Titan's data clean, and consider Cooper stowaway refugee; worst case with them shooting himself on sight as an IMC spy and scrapping BT-7274 altogether.

But then the young pilot suddenly remembered the conversation he had with that Histoire person. _'But there's still a chance to make things right again. We can't afford to give up now, not when there's still hope,'_ Cooper recalled as picked himself up off the floor and proceeded to return to the apartment bedroom with the helmet in his hands. _'I just hope we're not too late.'_

* * *

"Whew, I thought I was gonna turn as pale as a ghost for a moment there!" The now-exhausted Neptune sighed as she got dressed. "So, uh, how'd I get here Compa? What about you Beetsy?"

"What? You don't remember?" Compa asked in surprise and confusion.

"Nuh-uh," Neptune answered shaking her head. "My name's all I can remember."

"It appears that miss Neptune is currently suffering from post-traumatic amnesia." BT suggested.

"Wow! That's what I guessed as well! I've never seen a case in person. How original! Maybe you bumped your head," Compa added.

"Correct. It is very likely that a received concussion to the cranial region is the primary cause of miss Neptune's memory loss"

"Oh no! Is there any medicine for something like that? Do I need to hit myself in the head agai-"

"Miss Neptune, it is highly recommended that you do not self-inflict additional concussions, as it may worsen your condition," BT suggested. "Although there are no known medications proven to instantly regain memory loss, occupational therapy and moderate brain stimulation are effective treatments to amnesia."

"Ooooo..." Compa starred at BT in admiration with stars in her eyes. "Mister robot, are you a nurse as well?"

"Negative. Although my programming includes standard medical procedures, it's main purpose is to maintain protocol 3: protect the pilot."

Compa considered everything BT spat out as words of encouragement coming from some motivational speaker. _'That's it! If I was as dedicated to helping patients as mister robot was to his friend, then I can become a better nurse!'_ she thought to herself drawing inspiration from the giant Titan before regaining her train of thought from remembering Neptune's first question. "Oh right," she cutely bounced, now facing Neptune. "Well, let's see. It all happened last night. I was looking up into the sky and saw two shooting stars. It was you and mister robot falling from the sky."

"A shooting star? Are you yanking my hoodie strings? I fell from the sky?" Neptune asked doubtingly.

The pinkette put a finger to her chin, recalling the events of the night before. "I'm pretty sure. And then I saw Cooper jumping out of mister robot to catch you and slowly land on the ground safely."

"What! No way!" Neptune disagreed. "He probably didn't even spec in agility either."

"No really, it's true!" Compa argued. "Minster robot's friend seemed fine until he just fell and couldn't get up, so mister robot told me everything and I carried you two over my shoulder back to my bed."

"What she's saying is true, shorty," Cooper said as he walked back into the room with all his pilot gear and helmet on.

"Hey, what's with all the Spartan armor? No fair!" Neptune complained. "You must've used some kind of hacks and boosting to unlock those things!"

"On the contrary, according to aptitude evaluation records, pilot Cooper scored within the lowest quantile of his rank in technician capabilities"

Cooper could already hear Neptune quietly snickering about 'no INT either' in background. "Very funny, BT."

"My intention was not humor," the Vanguard-class Titan retorted. "It is important to establish communication and trust between our allies, pilot."

"Ahh...all this excitement is making me hungry," Neptune interjected.

"Oh right! I'll be right back." Compa exclaimed in realization as she left the room; returning moments later with a desert tray that had four milk puddings on each individual plate. "Here we are." Taking one off the tray and placing it towards the window next to be, "Mister robot, would you like to have one as well?"

"I would accompany you in eating, but unfortunately my chassis does not an contain orifice structure to intake human sustenance," BT answered.

Cooper, upon seeing Compa with a mopey look on her face, decided to intervene real quickly. "Don't worry, he doesn't eat anything I want him to either, my friend has a bad food allergy" he reassured her.

Compa, now with an expression of relief, smiled once again. "Oh really? Thank goodness. I was afraid mister robot hated my cooking for a moment there." She then gleefully handed one dish each to Neptune and Cooper. "Here you go, you two." She then took the remaining one for herself, "well then, let's dig in!"

 _'Great, I've been starving ever since I got up,'_ Cooper thought to himself

Cooper and Neptune blinked curiously as they looked at the sweets before taking a bite at the same time, each with radically different results.

"Th-this is... sssoooooo ggggoooooooodddd!" Neptune shouted in ecstasy.

"Bleggh," Cooper discretely gagged in his mouth. In the pilot's head, the texture of the meal had the consistency of chunky cottage cheese. To Cooper, it tasted like a spoiled egg MRE dish covered in sugar, leaving a rancid like aftertaste in his mouth. "Christ," he exclaimed. "This taste's like sh...-"

But before he could finish his statement, he glanced upon Compa eating her pudding as well, who appeared to have a look of anticipation towards Cooper, as if she was expecting him to enjoy the dish too. Not having the heart to break the poor young nurse-in-training's mood, he improvised in the quickest way possible.

"...-shhhhhhoooooommme of the best stuff I've ever had!" He said last minute.

"Really? That's amazing! I'm so glad you and Nep-Nep enjoy these so much!"

"Pilot, judging by your struggle to construct a cohesive statement as well as triggering several gag reflexes, I believe the term you were trying to pronounce was 'shi-...'"

"Hahaha! That's A Funny Story BT!" Cooper loudly spoke, interrupting BT before continuing. "See if you can try accessing a network on here, will ya?"

"Copy that. Connecting to wireless network and downloading all necessary information pertaining to our mission."

Cooper turned his head towards Neptune, who seemed to be scarfing her second plate of pudding originally meant for his robotic compadre, looking back down on his plate, then to Neptune again. "Well, you seem to be enjoying these quite alot."

"Mmmmph!" Neptune nodded with her mouth stuffed before swallowing. "These are sooOOOoooooOOO deliiiiiiiciooooous!"

"Wanna have the rest of mine?" He asked as he handed the barely-eaten dish towards the lilic-haired genki. "Don't exactly have a huge stomach, here. Plus this stuff fills you up quickly," He added.

"Yum...more for meeeee!" Neptune gleefully accepted in a choir-like musical voice.

Seeing Compa eating the last few bites of her own dish, he proceeded to approach her with questions that could assist himself and his Titan partner in their mission. "By the way Compa, what can you tell me about Gamindustri? As you could already tell, me and BT aren't exactly from here. Perhaps it might jumpstart Neptune's memory as well?"

"Ah, right. Let's see where to start..." Compa began to explain to the observant pilot as Neptune was still licking the plate clean.

...

...

...

Sometime later, after Compa brought BT and Cooper up to speed with explaining each of the four landmasses, their CPU leaders, the Basilicoms, shares the goddess rely on, and how many places throughout Gamindustri are being threatened by more and more monsters lately...

"Planeptune is where we're at, huh. With Leanbox, Lowee, and Laststaion being the other three nations it seems." Cooper commented.

"Yup, exactly. The land of green pastures, land of white serenity, and land of black regality," Compa added.

"Still a shame that the goddess ends up missing here, especially with all the monsters popping up here left and right. So much for the land of purple progress," he said discerningly. _'Still, could it be that the monsters are appearing due to those key fragment things?'_ He thought to himself before another voice interrupted his train of thought.

"So wait, none of you know who I am?" Neptune suddenly asked with a slight frown on her face.

"No, sorry Nep-Nep," Compa replied.

"Despite me being the one that saved your ass from landing like a pancake, no. Not at all."

"Aww don't feel bad Coop and Beetsy! At least you two have cute, innocent, and adorable me," Neptune returned with a cheeky grin.

"At least you don't have that stupid depressed look on your face anymore, surprisingly enough." As much as Cooper wanted to crack jokes and intentionally get under the lilac-hair knucklehead's skin, he couldn't help but feel sorry for the poor girl's situation. Sure, she didn't just teleport from another world like himself and BT, but she was pretty much a lost child in his eyes. Something not at all uncommon with the frontier, especially with the war tearing apart families and young children not knowing whether or not their parents are still alive out there. Besides the laser-guided amnesia, Neptune wouldn't be any different, just another unnecessary civilian casualty in the war.

Just then, a second thought suddenly interrupted his mind. "Wait a second..." he added, "did you just call me... Coop?"

"Well I have to be!" Neptune exclaimed as she replied back to Cooper's previous comment, "Plus, using people's real names is boring. Using catchy nicknames is where it's at! After all, I'm the main heroine of this fanfiction! And you two are like the buddy cop duo guest-stars!" she added. "Oooo, or would you two be like the twin brothers that need to get your bodies back and stuff?"

Cooper tilted his head in confusion. "Main character...?"

"Pilot, I believe that miss Neptune is under the delusion of a false narrative th-"

"You know what, I don't even think I wanna know." Cooper interrupted his Titan before continuing the conversation. "How about heading to the Basilicom? Maybe someone there might be able to help?" He suggested. _'Plus, they might give us information to finding those key fragments or whatever.'_

"Basili-what?" Neptune asked, as she seemingly failed to pay attention to Compa's previous explanation.

"The Basilicom," Compa said. "They act as our way to communicate with the Goddesses and send them our prayers. The priests there are extremely knowledgeable. If anyone will know something about you it'd be them."

"Oh, in that case... to the Basilicom!" Neptune shouted in excitement.

"I'll come along too!" Compa added.

"You're sure?" Cooper asked. "You've done more than enough and even gone out of your way to help us, we can't thank you enough. Plus, don't you have school to attend to or something?"

"Right, but... this city's population has been declining due to monsters eating them. Students are leaving school out of fear, so it's closed down for now. Classes are suspended until further notice."

"Fair enough, not like I can convince you otherwise. C'mon BT, looks like all of us are coming, then."

"What are you all waiting for!" Neptune shouted outside the apartment door. "Let's Go!"

* * *

Compa, BT, Neptune, and Cooper stood in front of a large, regal, multicolored structure that was many meters tall.

"You're sure BT isn't sticking out like a sore thumb?" Cooper asked. "Or that we'll attract any unnecessary attention?"

"Not at all!" Compa answered. "A lot of people in Planeptune LOVE big machines, what do you think those kids earlier put stickers all over mister robot's legs?"

"Pilot," BT added. "The population here do not appear to show any signs of hostility based off facial patterns. We are indeed 'blending-in' with the crowd."

"Good point. Explains why all the citizens we talked to earlier seemed to adore you, big guy."

"This is the Basilicom?" Neptune asked as she ignored their conversation.

 _'Still... this city is amazing...'_ Cooper noted in shock.

"C'mon!" Compa urged with a smile as they approached the Basilicom.

The interior of the building was of a bright aesthetic, almost resembling an elegant church if not for the array of sci-fi holograms and structures. As they entered the building, a man with blonde hair, wearing long, white and purple robes walked up to the group. "Greetings child, how may I assist you?"

Compa motioned to Neptune next to her. "We need to know if you know our friend here."

"I see..." The priest then turned to the lilic-haired girl, "And you are?"

"I'm Neptune!"

"Hhmm… the name sounds vaguely familiar, but I'm sorry. I can't help. Perhaps you can ask the townsfolk."

"Okay!"

"(Pilot, I believe the individual here can assist in giving us information pertaining to the whereabouts of the key fragment on this continent)," BT secretly communicated through Cooper's helmet.

"Is there anything else I may help you folks with?"

"There is, actually," Cooper inquired motioning to BT. "We've heard about the recent monster incidents outside the city limits; my friend and I here were wondering if you have any information as to where they might be coming from?"

"I see, have you also all come to help us with the monster control as well?"

"You could say that," Cooper replied. "My partner and I figured that a large portion of the monsters here seemed to have come from a specific location, at least, from what a majority of people here have told us."

 _'I never thought that we would receive voluntary help,'_ the priest thought. "Thank you so much! Here's all the information we have about where they might be coming from," the priest mentioned right before handing Cooper a small holographic tablet.

"Don't worry about it, we'll make sure the monsters threat is controlled again," Cooper reassured him as he turned to his Titan before leaving. "C'mon BT, let's go."

"Ahh, if I might ask, my good sir... are you and your companion soldiers by any chance?" the priest asked the departing party.

"We're just good samaritans doing out job," the pilot waved backwards as he was walking away.

* * *

Sometime later, the group sat around some bench within the limits, with the exception of BT and Cooper.

"Well that was a total bust, still nothing..." Neptune groaned with a sigh.

"Sorry…" Compa apologized with a pout. "At least you found that sword on the ground."

"You mean that wooden toy sword?" Cooper sneered. "Say BT, do we have a pinpoint location yet?"

"We do. After downloading all topographical region data and analyzing records from the site 'DungleMaps', I have calculated our point of interest. The source of origin is located approximately 10 kilometers southeast of our location. We must get there as soon as possible."

"Say, what's with this mission of yours? You were kinda talking about it back at the basilicom, but you never told me or Compa anything!" Neptune interrupted, as she waved the wooden katana around in her hands.

"Well, for lack of a better word... BT and I were apparently sent here on a mission to save the world or something, and my best bet is that the thing we need is probably in there," he explained briefly. "You should probably stop swinging that toy around before you give yourself a splinter."

"Ooooo... I had a dream like that too! There must be a boss generating all these monsters somewhere! I bet our mission is to go defeat that boss and save the world!"

"Plausible," BT added. "It is highly likely that the location of our objective will contain a large number of hostiles. It is in our best interests to work together in order to increase our odds of success."

"BT, please stop enabling her to say anymore foolish stuff," Cooper said before turning to Neptune. "Also... _our_ mission?"

"Neptune appeared to be brimming with confidence, "Yeah, you, me, Beetsy, and Compa! We're the ones that are gonna team up and save the world!"

"Dream? You must've hit you head way too hard. This ain't a video game, kid. Do you even know what you're going into or how dangerous it is? Have you even considered what she thought before grouping her up with your schemes?" Cooper replied as he pointed as the nurse-in-training lost in her own thoughts.

Compa began to contemplate what Neptune said, "I believe Grandpa did have a saying like that. Yes, that's right. I wanted to be a nurse to save people." For the first time since Cooper and Neptune meeting her, a determined expression made its way onto Compa's face. "So, why should I save the injured, but not those being threatened by monsters? How impolite of me! I'm not the strongest, but I'll help. Two is better than one!"

Cooper sighed. "Looks like there no use convincing you two otherwise, is there?"

"The probabllity is highly unlikely," BT commented.

"Fine, we'll tag along for now," the young pilot shrugged. "But only for the sake of helping Neptune get her memory back, just don't expect me to play babysitter," he added. _'Damn, this is probably how the captain thought of me when I first joined his squadron,'_ he thought as he immediately began to regret his last comment. _'I'll need to apologize to them later...'_

But before he could get his thoughts together, the lilac-haired girl suddenly shouted. "Let's goooooo! The monsters aren't just going to be waiting for us, you know!"

"Indeed, there is no time to waste. We must fulfill Protocol 2: Uphold the mission." BT added, now equipped in its standard Expedition loadout.

Cooper couldn't help but simply sigh at his current situation.

* * *

The party soon found themselves walking along a relatively open path within the forests outside the city. While the road was fairly calm, Cooper couldn't help but feel that it was too quiet, and that they were walking into a monster's path. His suspicions were confirmed as soon as the came across on small fork on the road, only to find three... slimes?

"The hell? Do those... things... have dog faces on them?" The confused pilot couldn't believe what he saw, a weird looking a hybrid of a dog and what appeared to be slime-like creature.

"Facial pattern indicates they appear to share similar physical traits as the _Canis familiaris_ species," BT added.

"Oh look! They're dogoos." Compa noted. "This shouldn't be hard at all!"

Neptune's eyes began to burn with determination. "Alright, we finally found some monsters! Let's beat 'em up!"

If it wasn't for all the other unusual things he'd already seen today, Cooper would have probably assumed he was some kind of drug hallucination. They didn't appear to be as much of a threat as he imagined. Still, he couldn't just make assumptions based on looks alone, but at least they weren't like the Prowlers he faced back on Typhon research station.

Neptune readied her wooden katana in a fighting stance as Compa suddenly puled out an oversized syringe containing some kind of liquid.

"Is that a giant syringe?" Cooper's eye twitched in disbelief underneath his helmet.

"Pilot, although it seems that miss Compa has taken on the role of a combat medic, my algorithms do not appear to calculate a possible method as to miss Compa's weapon storage," BT commented.

"Game mechanics, duh," quietly remarked Neptune in the background.

"Probably best that neither of us think about it," Cooper replied back to his Titan has he pulled out his CAR submachine gun and aimed the sights towards the monster furthest from Neptune and Compa. Immediately firing a short burst of rounds that tore though the creature at center mass, killing it instantly.

Meanwhile, Neptune swung her wooden blade towards the second dogoo, somehow slicing it in half. Soon after, Compa rushed towards the other monster as she jabbed the needle on top of its head before injecting the mysterious content into the third dogoo, causing it to immediately disintegrate.

Glancing upon the third dogoo's less than quick death, Cooper quietly whispered to his titan over comms. "(BT, remind me not to piss her off.)"

"(Noted. You will have to explain that expression later.)"

Neptune stared with a starry-eyed look at the advanced-looking submachine gun Cooper was holding. "Wow… that explains everything! Coop here musta' maxed everything out in dexterity to hold awesome weapon. It has to be ultra-rare boss drop!"

"Rare drop? Besides the paint, pretty sure this is a standard service rifle on the fronti-"

"Nep-Nep, Mr. Cooper, look out!" Compa shouted as everyone suddenly saw two more dogoos jumping out of the pushes towards each of them"

But before the two monsters even got the change to slam on top of them, their momentum slowed to a complete stop as the group saw a vortex field projecting out of BT's left palm caught the dogoos midflight. With the vortex shield still active, the Vanguard-class titan then turned towards the opposite direction before releasing the shield and immediately launching the now panicking monsters towards a large tree trunk at bullet velocities.

"Pilot, multiple hostiles approaching to our side. They appear to be planning an ambush," BT said right before several more dogoos jump into the open. The titan then fired its XO-16 chaingun towards the row of monsters in a sweeper-like motion of rapid slugs.

"Cooooooool..." both Neptune and Compa stared in astonishment.

"Pilot, larger hostiles detected ahead. We appear to be outnumbered, but not outmatched." BT noted as it opened up its cockpit. "I advise that you embark as soon as possible."

"Nice, time to show these things what we're made of!" Cooper shouted as he hopped right into the seat before closing the hatchet. "Neptune, Compa, get behind us! Alright BT, let's do this." Just as the pilot embarked into his several ton titan, a group of larger dogoos followed by a 'king' dogoo, as noted by its large crown, jumped out ahead of them.

"Multiple hostiles detected, acquiring target lock," BT noted as a pair of missile pods gimball-mounted on its shoulders popped open.

"Fire!" Neptune and Compa heard from the cockpit as Cooper activated the mech's ordinance with the flip of a button. Several lock-on rockets shot out of the pods, each one targeting an individual dogoo. As the explosions cleared, all that stood left was king dogoo by itself poised to attack.

"Activating Burst Core" BT proceeded to load a new drum magazine onto its chaingun before laying down a much more intense stream of bullets right into the now dead king dogoo, in a manner of what could be considered overkill.

"Whooooooa..." the two girls looked in awe as the Titan's hatchet opened. "We'll definitely be safe with our high-leveled teammates!" Neptune added.

"All proximal threats eliminated," BT plainly said to it's pilot as he got out of the Titan.

"So do you two, like, combine together into some kind of badass super mode?" Neptune asked with a puzzled expression on her face.

"Not really," Cooper replied. "It's more like the the fact that a titan and its pilot reach their true potential when they work as a team. In other words, it's the bond between pilo-"

Ignoring Cooper's answer, Cooper noticed a progress-bar appear above her. "Oh cool! XP Share Too? Nice! And we leveled up!"

"Yay!" Compa cutely bounced.

"Level up?" The confused pilot asked.

"Pilot," BT interjuncted. "It appears that in this world, our combat effectiveness and ally synergy between teammates can be measured and improved, based off battle performance using an arbitrary display value measured in experience..."

"Wait, we need to pick up their loot as well!" Compa suddenly exclaimed as she quickly searched through the supposed 'remains' of the dogoos.

"With this much fed XP, we don't even need to level grind! We'll be unstoppable!" Neptune cheerfully shouted with her fist in the air like a victory pose.

"Well done pilot, our combat effectiveness rating has now exceeded over ninety-five percent. In addition, we have obtained two valuable allies and are vastly improving teammate synergy."

"Right..." Cooper, nervously nodded in agreement.

* * *

Several smaller battles later, the group wound up the entrance of a deep cave.

"So this is the place, huh?" Cooper said to himself.

"C'mon! Let stop the evil monster and save Planeptune!" Compa exclaimed.

"Yea! And pick up whatever cool loot it drops as well!"

"Correct, I recommend we search through the cavern in order to reach our destination. I would accompany you and our allies, but unfortunately my chassis will not fit through the entrance."

"Awwwwh, no fair!" Neptune pouted. "We can't have our OP tank for the raid boss?!"

"Well then, time to earn my keep..." Cooper said with a tone of snark in his voice

"On the contrary, you have proven yourself a valuable asset to our teammates. I suspect you have gained the affection of miss Neptune and miss Compa," the turned rotated its optics towards the two before continuing. "I detect another large cavern opening several clicks east of here. I will meet you on the other side."

"Don't get captured again, BT."

"I will avoid all shortcuts," the Titan said to them as he began walking to the other side.

"Wait, shortcuts? Captured? What are you guys talking about?" Neptune asked with an adorably confused expression.

"It's a long story," Cooper replied with a sigh as the three entered the cavern.

* * *

"...This is soooooo borring!" Neptune cried out. "Are we there yet?"

"For the fourteenth time, well get there when we get there!" Cooper shouted as he examined the minimap on his helmet's display. "At least we haven't came across any of those monsters..."

"Nep-Nep, you're making Mr. Cooper angry again," Compa pouted.

"Don't worry, it's just been a long day for me, that's all. Also, you don't need to call me Mr. Cooper, just Cooper is fine honestly."

"Sure thing, Mr. Cooper!" Compa cheerfully replied before immediately apologizing.

"Urgh..." Neptune groaned. "This cave's so big! We'll never be able to find the boss at this rate– oof!"

"Nep-Nep! Are you okay? You should be careful!"

"Gah!" a new voice growled in front of them. "Watch it!"

Upon glancing, the group came across a short(er) young girl with waist length brunette hair, a black chocker, and what looked to be a leaf-green ribbon matching the color of her eyes tied into a bow that held some of the girl's ponytail to the side. She wore a black and silver tanktop, black shorts with a black belt and a silver buckle, a pair of black socks and what appeared to be blue combat boots, along with a loose belt strap holding nine different cellphones. Probably the most striking thing she wore was an overly large blue coat with red thunderbolt marks, silver buttons, and matching trimming that was so oversized the sleeves extended past her hands.

"No...you watch it!" Neptune replied, before seeing the short brunette. "Wait... who are you?"

The girl stood with mild annoyance as she wiped dirt from her knees. "The name is IF. I'm from the Guild."

"Nice to meet'cha Iffy!" Neptune chimed in excitement as she ignored her previous comment.

"Don't call me Iffy. That's not my name," IF twitched an eyebrow in annoyance as she remained her composure. "It's IF. Now who are YOU all?"

 _'IF... as in, the two letters?'_ Cooper scratched the top his his head as he thought to himself. _'Is this girl supposed to be some kind of android or something? But wait, she doesn't look like a Simulacrum or spectre at all'_

"My name is Neptune and this is Compa. That weird looking guy over there is Coop, our scary super-soldier."

"Right..." IF said, unconvinced at Neptune's last statement.

"Jack Cooper, frontier militia. Just ignore her idiocy; she tends to talk before thinking," the pilot reassured her as he lowered his gun to shake her hand. "Anyways, what's a kid like you doing here?"

Her eyebrows twitched in slight anger. "I'm 16, first of all. And second of all, there's a monster here that's been causing problems throughout the city. The Guild received a job to kill it, and that's why I'm here."

"How coincidental, the basilicom staff have also mentioned a monster causing problems throughout the city as well." Cooper added.

"Then we should team up," Compa jumped in. "There's safety in numbers."

"Yeah!" Neptune added. "Why not help us conquer this dungeon together?"

IF nodded in agreement. "Fair enough, I guess the more help I get, the easier it'll be for me. Fine. We'll team up, but know that you're joining me!"

"Yippee!" Neptune cheered with excitement. "You her that Compa? Iffy joins the party! That's five members so quickly!"

"My name's not Iffy! And what do you mean five members? There's only four of us here!"

"Oh right, mister robot is still stuck trying to get in here..."

"Oh yeah, we forgot about Beetsy, huh...?"

"Mister robot? Beetsy, what in the world are you two even talking about?"

"Uhh yeah, I can explain that," Cooper casually raised his hand. "My titan partner, BT, couldn't fit through the front entrance, so he's basically rendezvous with us at this point," Cooper explained as he activated a holographic map display projecting from his helmet, showing their current location and the objective point. "Took me awhile to get this thing calibrated and set up, especially with her distractions," he pointed towards Neptune. "Anyways, we should get going, the city isn't going to save itself you know."

"You're right," the intrigued IF lightly nodded in agreement. "Let's regroup with your partner and get this finished with."

"(Pilot, I detect numerous hostile signatures ahead of you, please exercise with extreme caution. I am on my way.)"

"Right!" Neptune cheered before turning to walk through the cavern ahead of everyone else, not knowing what's in front of her. "Follow me! The MC!"

The group suddenly heard a loud mixture of monster growls and noises.

"That doesn't sound good." Compa suggested in a worried tone.

"Uhh... everyone, I think we might have just found the monsters" IF said before she flicked her wrists, causing two, large, tri-bladed qatars to emerge from her sleeves.

"What was that?" Exclaimed Neptune.

"Shit! Neptune, get back!" Cooper abruptly tugged back on the lilac-haired girl's hood as several small rectangular creatures dropped from the ceiling before drawing out his gun. "Well these are some weird creatures," he noted.

"They're Pixelvaders!" both Compa and IF exclaimed in shock before readying themselves for combat.

"Dammit, there's way too many of them," Cooper strafed around as he was opening fire on the horde of monsters. "I'm not gonna have enough ammo to kill all of them," the pilot continued as he reloaded another magazine and began to pull out an arc grenade from his inventory.

Neptune, along with Compa and IF proceeded to fight and slash their way through the group of Pixelvaders. Just then, with a loud rumble, a completely larger creature emerged from the caves. The monster resembled the lower half of a spider's body, with a strong humanoid torso and arms as it held a large two handed with sharp edges on both sides of the blade on it's left hand.

"What the hell?!" Cooper exclaimed as he saw the giant creature had its sights towards its closest target, their healer. The pilot tossed the electric grenade behind him towards the Pixelvaders on his trail before activating his pilot jump pack to launch himself between the two. "Look out!" He shouted while firing several well placed shots towards the monster's head as it was about to swing its blade in an attempt to disarm it.

Although Compa was able to block the strike, the giant now-disorientated monster took a backhanded swing with its fist against Compa and Cooper as both were slammed into a wall.

"Crap!" IF cursed before dashing toward and slashing the creatures sides, proving only to agitate the monster before it pounded its fist on her, knocking her down on the ground.

Neptune tightened her fists around her blade as she stared towards the monster with an odd crystal in her hand. "Hey you big baddie! Stop hurting my friends!" Suddenly, Neptune's body was engulfed in a bright light as she was surrounded in glowing rings of binary code, shining throughout the entire cavern.

 ***(Activating HDD Form: Purple Heart)***

"What in the...?" Cooper stammered as he, Compa, and IF got themselves back up.

The light subsided, revealing Neptune, or what Cooper assumed to be Neptune, completely changed. She was significantly taller, with long dark purple braided hair that nearly reached her feet, along with bright crystal-blue eyes with glowing white pupils that appeared to resemble power symbols. Her outfit had also undergone a dramatic change as well, with cross-shaped clips in her hair, a black bodysuit that exposed a large amount of her now very plentiful bust, and multiple purple accents along the inner arms and near her thighs and high-heeled black boots matching the bodysuit. She also had multiple black and purple devices floating around her head, shoulders, waist, and feet, along with large, glowing, purple wings made of energy.

"I'll take you down!" The confident voice shouted, with a much deeper and more mature voice than previously.

Similarly, the arm-mounted device on Cooper's left hand started to glow a vibrant blue light similar to the Ark that distorted his surroundings, as his helmet's HUD and controls began to shift erratically; showing a brand new option's panel. "The hell?" He murmured to himself has he discovered the device was interacting with his helmet's menu.

The girl who was supposedly Neptune turned her head towards Cooper, who appeared to be approaching the monster again. "Stand down, Jack. Don't worry, I'll take care of this." She assured him with a cool, welcoming, confident smile that backed her words.

"Heh, like hell you are..." Cooper smugly replied as raised his arm to up show her the glowing device. "I still owe that bastard a good killing for opening my injury again... Wait, did you just call me by my first name?" He asked out of sudden confusion. "And you are Neptune, right?"

"Of course I am," she reassured. "I'm just stronger than I was before."

After selecting the only highlighted option that appeared to available, a purple gun icon, the device immediately digistructed a weapon at the palm of his hands. At first glance, the weapon appeared to be just a regular submachinegun with an oversized fat barrel and carry handle, but was actually a micro-missile launcher. Only difference between this weapon and a regular Sidewinder SMR back on the frontier was that this gun was somehow painted a bright neon purple with bright blue and pink accents along with a black trim finish. In addition to the odd decals grafted. there was also an N-shaped symbol engraved on the side of the amped firearm.

 ***(Purple Unit Selected: now equipping Amped Sidewinder SMR)***

"Huh, impressive," the mature Neptune nodded as she noticed his new weapon materialized before him. "I won't try and stop you from fighting. However, I need an opening to finish this quickly, can you manage that?"

"You got it, I'll draw you some covering fire while you go in for the kill," Cooper said as he pulled back on the charging handle before aiming his Sidewinder SMR towards the large creature.

Both the pilot and Neptune rushed towards the monster's sides, flanking it from opposite ends; with Neptune flying towards it while Cooper sprinted along the cave's wall.

"Three...Two...One... Surpressing!" Cooper shouted as he released a rapid stream of amped gyrojet rockets that pierced though the monster's armor before rupturing its arm into giblets. "Neptune, now!"

The larger Neptune then rushed forward, a massive blade appearing in her grasp, and slashed at the large monster's exposed torso, easily slicing it in half with one swipe before disintegrating.

Upon the giant creature's destruction, both the pilot and transformed Neptune lowered their weapons and turned towards their teammates.

"You two okay?" Cooper asked.

"Whooooa, Nep-Nep got bigger," Compa said in astonishment.

"Behind you!" IF suddenly shouted at the two.

Just then, more Pixelvaders along with three more of the same creatures they eliminated earlier suddenly dropped from the ceiling. One of which was ready to strike at Cooper with it's large blade right before a missile blast out of nowhere sent the sent it flying back. A tall, humanoid, metal-clad figure with a glowing eyepiece then emerged from the same side of the dark cave.

"Right on the nick of time, BT." Cooper nodded.

"It's mister robot!" Compa waved at the Vanguard-class titan.

"T-That's your friend?" IF asked in an expression of complete shock before regaining her composure.

"Pilot, it seems that miss Neptune's physical form has changed significantly as well as psychological evaluation. In addition to recruiting a new ally for our mission, you also appear to having difficulties eliminating the targets.

"You could say that," both Cooper and IF simultaneously said.

"You mind lending a hand?" Neptune asked as she, IF, and Compa began to engage the enemies.

"During my downloads earlier, I have appeared to obtain a new loadout that may increase out combat effectiveness in battle. Would you like me to utilize it?"

"Anything would be more than helpful at this point!" Cooper shouted as he continued to fire volleys of amped missiles towards the rest of the monsters surrounding them.

"Very well. Switching to experimental loadout: ***** **[PURPLE .EXE]*** "

The 'experimental' loadout was something Cooper didn't expect at all. The pilot's face was in surprise as he saw a few armor trims on his Titan immediately begin to change color to a darkish purple tint, all while he could hear various loud noises of moving metal parts and servos coming from BT. The two shoulder gimbal-mounted 'acolyte-pods' on the back of BT soon transformed into some kind of electric rods arcing several streams of lightning between each other; with BT arming himself with what appeared to be a one-handed Energy weapon along with large blade with a laser-cutting edge that could easily match the size of Ronin's melee weapon.

"What in the...?" Cooper looked in awe as he failed to see the large monster charging towards him and Neptune.

"Protocol 3: protect the pilot. Activating tesla cannon ordinance." The shoulder-mounted rods on BT then aimed at the charging beast before letting loose an arcing bolt of thunder, causing the monster to collapse on the floor before the Titan proceeded to fire several bolts of hot plasma on its face, killing it instantly. "This is a highly dangerous environment, I suggest you embark."

"Got it." Cooper nodded as he dodged over a sword strike from one of the monsters as it prepared to do a backswing.

But before it had the chance to, BT had grabbed Cooper by the chest and and jabbed its own blade right into the large monster's chest before placing the pilot back into its own cockpit. Upon entering BT, Cooper began to see a new set of weapons appear on the cockpit HUD:

 _Primary: 1x Heavy Plasma Pistol_  
 _Secondary: 1x Arc Blade_  
 _Ordinance: 2x Tesla Cannon_  
 _Tactical: 1x Active Camo_  
 _Defensive: 1x Barrier Force-field_  
 _Core: [REDACTED]_

"Huh, what's this," Cooper asked to himself as he activated the Titan's new core ability.

"Divinity Core Activated." BT said as its optical sensor lights began to change color from its usual bluish hue.

The Titan was soon enveloped in some kind of mysterious aura, as it soon began to glow in a bright purple light. Now holding the sword with both hands, the blade proceeded to grow in size with a vibrant purple with arcs of electricity coursing through its body. The Vanguard-class titan was now painted in a metallic black and purple color scheme noticibly similar to the now transformed Neptune's bodysuit. Inside the cockpit, parts of the mech's display were flooded in an array of 1's and 0's over the screen as well as round, purple, alien-like text generating.

As the Vanguard-class titan's core ability activated, everything in front of its path was devastated with one single stroke of BT's charged weapon. When the dust settled, the only people left standing were Cooper and his allies.

"All hostiles eliminated, well done pilot," BT noted as its lights and paint began to change back to normal along with its weapon.

"Yeah... you too, BT." Cooper congratulated as he got out of the pilot to rejoin everyone else, who were now grouped next to Neptune. "Since when were you able to do that?" Both him and the transformed Neptune asked.

"Approximately 25.78 second ago," BT answered as it suddenly feel on to one knee. "Pilot, it appears that activating the unknown core unit has placed extraneous strain on my battery supplies."

"Oh no! Is mister robot alright?" Compa cried out in concern.

"I wouldn't about him too much," Cooper assured her as he scanned the area for any power supplies in the cavern. "BT just needs some power source to recharge with, that's all."

"My systems are rebooting. It appears that the residual energy in this world also allows me to accelerate the process in place of a battery unit. I will remain here until I am mobile."

"Hey, everyone... I think we found something" IF pointed at a small unusual pedestal in the distance as the other three joined her.

"Iffy, Nep-Nep, Mr. Cooper, what' that?" Compa said pointing at the object on top of the pedestal.

"Objective complete, we have reached place of origin involving the monster incidents," said the stationary BT sitting several yards in the back of the corridor. "I recommend you search the vicinity for the key fragment."

"Hmm, so I guess this is the key crest thing she was talking about, isn't it?" Cooper said to himself.

"So this is a key fragment then," Neptune inquired as she approached closer to the glowing object sitting atop of the stone pedestal. But before she could grab it, the floor suddenly collapsed beneath the four of them.

"It's a trap!" Both IF and Cooper shouted, as all four of them fell into another room bellow.

From what appeared to be the only exit of the trapped room, another figure approached them as she picked up the mysterious object off the floor. The figure was a tall woman with pale, almost light purple, skin, short, light lavender hair that was messy, with one side of bangs hanging lower than the other, wearing a tall, bent, pointed hat with a ring of thorns, flower, and feathers just above the brim, as well as a witch-like outfit with many purple and gold accents.

"Good," she noted with a smirk before looking up at IF and the others. "Now to deal with you."

"Who's the old lady?" the larger Neptune asked as she got up off the floor.

"Hmph," The woman puffed in annoyance before a long, four-bladed staff appeared in her hand that she pointed towards the girl. "Brat." A powerful blast of dark energy then fired from the spear targeting Neptune.

"Look out Nep-Nep!" Compa shouted shouted as she shoved Neptune away from the blast.

The woman hissed in irritation as the beam instead hit the nurse-in-training before bouncing back at her. "Stay out of the way so I can hit Nep-Nep!" She twitched an eyebrow and remained silent momentarily as she processed what she had just said.

The entire party blinked in confusion as Neptune helped Compa up. "Wh-What the..."

"Just great. This is your fault, girl!" The pale skin-women shouted as she charged a laser beam out of her bladed staff towards Compa.

"Oh no you don't!" the pilot interjected as he tossed a pulse blade towards the women's back before re-chambering his Sidewinder.

The pale-skin women deflected the thrown projectile with her spear before firing a cackling bolt of lightning at Cooper.

IF rolled out of the way and Cooper used his jump pack to dodge the thunder blasts as he fired a rapid stream of amped missiles towards the women, unable to deflect the explosion blasts.

"Useless!" The women hissed in pain as she healed herself in a manner exactly to Compa's abilities. The pilot quickly recognized how his target had basically mimicked her foes' abilities using a specific attack."

 _'Dammit, I'm not going to have enough ammo if she keeps healing herself at this rate, I'll have to end this as soon as possible,'_ Cooper thought to himself before comminucating with his Titan. "(BT, what's your status?)"

"(My primary systems are back online, pilot. While I am too large to enter through the ruptured ceiling, I detect an area of vulnerable structural integrity nearby. Marking on your helmet.)"

The pilot noticed a portion of ceiling highlighted on his display above two large natural supporting structures. "(Alright, how much of Scorch's ammo do we have?)"

"(Switching to Scorch loadout. I currently contain three incindiary gas canisters and three rounds of T-203 Thermite Launcher ammunition in my inventory. I advise a point of entry.)"

"Good. We'll only need one of each." As Neptune and IF were clashing blades with the witch, Cooper handed Compa a few satchel charges while he pointed at the two nearby supporting pillars.

"Huh...?" Compa asked with a surprised look on her face. "Mr. Cooper, what are these?"

"This is very important. I'm going to need you to put these on each those pillars while I get her attention. As soon as I get that witch lady near that area, I need you three to get away from there." Cooper replied as he pointed towards his detonation switch and readied his active cloak ability. "You at least know how these work right? Just tear off the safety and stick these onto something."

"I think so... but, what about you?" Compa asked nervously.

"Don't worry, I got a plan." He replied to her as he ran and shot towards the pale-skin lady "Neptune! IF! Avoid that attack of hers! It lets her copy your abilities!"

"Got it!" the larger Neptune and IF answered as they maneuvered around around the woman.

"Boy! This is all your fault!" The witch cried out charging towards the pilot spear-first, dodging all the incoming projectiles. What she didn't expect was for her target to immediately vanish in front of her, only for him to reappear moments later wielding a shortsword, slashing at her back."Gah!" The pale-skin women grunted in pain as she was pushed closer towards the supporting cave structures, before seeing the pilot disappear again.

 _'This could be easier than I thought,'_ Cooper thought to himself. The pilot appeared again moments later towards the witch in a dive-kick motion.

Predicting this, she caught the pilot's foot and slammed him into the ground, pinning Cooper down with her hand on his neck. "I've got you now, you little pest! I'll burn you alive!" Almost immediately, a torrent of flames appeared besides her aimed at him.

"Funny you mention that lady... that's also the same thing they do to witches," Cooper snarky replied before flipping a switch on his hand. "BT, now!" The pilot activated the switch just as he used his jump boosters to slide back from the women, causing her to trip and fall on the ground as he snatched the mysterious object from her hands.

As the pillars structures were destroyed, the weight of ceiling collapsed on itself. A carpet of flame and large boulders fell on top of the woman, burying her in superheated thermite. With the gaping hole in the ceiling, BT immediately jump down besides the pile of burning stone.

"Told you I had a plan. Nice work by the way," Cooper turned to Compa before facing BT. "Good to see you back in one piece, big guy."

A brilliant light and rings of binary code enveloped Neptune, reverting her back into her human preteen form. Similarly, the Amped Sidewinder firearm Cooper had been carry on his back suddenly disappeared in a bright purple flash.

"Aawwh! My bazongas are gone..." she pouted.

Cooper slapped a hand over his helmet.

"What the world was that earlier? How did you transform and everything?"

"I dunno. Histy just said for me to use my HDD form, or something like that!" Neptune shrugged casually.

"Histy... you mean Histoire or whatever, right?"

The entire party immediately turned their attention to the pile of flaming rocks, where a women had just emerged from the near-molten rubble, struggling to stay upright.

"You punks, I'll get you for this!" The witch stammered before tossing a small red disc and vanishing. In a bright light, the thrown disc immediately popped out a large monster before breaking apart. The large monster, now identified as a 'Guard Vermin,' was exactly like the many warrior-monsters they had fought earlier.

"The discs. So that's where they are coming from!" IF shouted.

The Guard Vermin, upon hearing the first thin sound, immediately set its sights towards IF before several shots plinked against its back.

"Hey, you stupid bastard! Over here!" Cooper shouted as he fired several rounds to get the monster's attention before having to reload his submachine gun.

With its attention now focused on Cooper, the Guard Vermin charged at the the young pilot until a certain Titan's fist smashed against its body. BT then slammed the ground in front of it with one of its fists, creating a 'firewall' that trapped the creature. Soon after, the Scorch loadout titan charged in with its heat shield slamming right into the monster's chest, incinerating the Guard Vermin in the process.

"Is it over?" Compa asked worriedly.

Cooper sighed in relief as he examined the strange object. "Yeah, I think."

The now-petite Neptune pouted with frustration. "I'm the main character here. Where's my reward?"

"A reward after getting us into that booby-trap?" IF retorted before looking at Cooper, who still appeared to be examining the fragment like piece. "Say, what is that by the way?"

"Pilot, if you hand me that item, I will analyze its composition and properties." BT offered as it kneeled down with an open hand.

"If it's anything like Major Anderson, might be something important," Cooper shrugged before handing the fragment piece to his Titan partner. "Here."

"Who's Major Anderson?" Neptune curiously asked.

"Someone who's, well... half the man he used to be," Cooper sarcastically answered. "I'll just leave it as that"

Upon grabbing the mysterious object, a bluish orb appeared on BT's palm as his optical light became brighter. "Objective complete: we have successfully obtained the first key fragment and rendezvous with the CPU goddess of Planeptune. Well done, pilot."

"So that was the key fragment thing after al— wait, did you say goddess?" Cooper asked as he eyed a suspicious glare towards Neptune, who seemed to be jumping around with joy along with Compa talking about some kind of "epic loot".

"Incoming transmission from Histoire, displaying holographic video feed:" BT suddenly interjected as a hologram feed digitized in front of the Titan's optic display.

"(Hello, can all of you hear me?)" A soft familiar voice asked, emanating from the book-shaped hologram.

* * *

 **-End of Chapter 2-**

 **A/N: Hey everyone! Megazord here! Well this was a pretty lengthy chapter to hurdle through. Hopefully BT and Cooper's actions didn't mess with many of the other character's traits. Probably for the sake of attempting to get somewhat consistent updates on a bimonthly basis, I'll try to cut down on the size of chapters in the future, especially with a busy work schedule coming up soon as well. Anywho's let's get down into some review replies:**

 **setakat : Hopefully that was enough pudding for both BT and Cooper. Part of me wants to feel like Cooper and pudding go together like an exhausted field soldier and bad MREs somehow. I wanted to try making some kind of humor behind the fact that our certain pilot might not enjoy the mushy meal too much.**

 **Meanjojo : Glad you liked it. I'm hoping this gives you a good idea of what type of humor to expect from our Titan-and-Pilot duo. Considering his past with the IMC and how similar it is to a certain corporation in Laststation, l** **et's just say Cooper isn't going to be too happy after what the learns about Avenir from Chian. And speaking of Chian, let's just say her parents are associated with a certain _someone_ familiar with the Frontier and titans in general. I'll just leave it as that, especially for people who might be familiar with the first Titanfall story.**

 **Locus , ****Spiderwl , and Million Arthur The Yuri King** **: Thank's man! I'll try to update at least once a month or more, though the length might be a bit smaller as a result.**

 **LeMarker : My feelings exactly. It's so easy to start driving this into an OC-filled self-insert fic, especially with a character only somewhat fleshed out in the TF2 campaign (referring to Cooper, not BT). Hence why it takes so much time (and difficulty?) to be careful in order to avoid that pitfalls; especially by trying to give them some kind of thought process or reasoning behind their actions. But seriously, thanks for the kind words or encouragement! **

**Christopherprime22 : Been a while since I've finished the playthrough with Re;Birth1, so it's hard to recall their exact dialogue verbatim, but I'll do my best. As for the Neptunia franchise, if you want to at least be familiar with the characters and some of their quirks, the Anime series isn't a bad place to start by any means (despite what some people might say). **

**Guest : Pretty sure it might be twenty-five and a half ton robot. Though I could be wrong. :)**

 **I'll try to get some part of chapter 3 (or 4, according to the website) sometime soon. Till then, please be sure to rate and review, thanks!  
**

 **P.S.: Admin and staff, I'm still waiting any day for my character tags to show up on the Titanfall list... you're sure you guys respond to character list requests?**


	4. Chapter 3: Their Mission

_Disclaimer: the Hyperdimension Neptunia series is owned by Idea Factory International, and the Titanfall series is owned by Respawn Entertainment. Both franchises belong to their respective owners._

* * *

 **-Chapter 3: "Their Mission"-**

The large mechanical being began to analyze the mysterious object given by its pilot in order to scan for the object's gravitational patterns, matter composition, wavelength emissions, and various other readings. Among the large glowing caverns and surrounding rubble illuminated by bright crystals, a hologram appeared to project out of BT's optical 'eye' as the Titan held a so-called key fragment, now levitating in its right hand. The bluish hologram that appeared in the middle of everyone was of a large floating tome bound by some sort of chain lock. Although the imaging quality of the hologram appeared moderately distorted with noise, one could probably notice the fairy wings and mysterious engravings on the book with ease. Cooper himself couldn't help but picture the item as something straight out of a children's fairy tale book, especially with the fact that he could point out all the minor details and fancy engravings etched onto the visible parts of the tome not covered in chains.

Neptune, Compa, IF, and Cooper all looked in awe at the floating book standing before them right before to being suddenly interrupted by BT's voice.

"Incoming transmission from Histoire. Opening communications." The Titan informed everyone.

A faint voice began to talk out of the hologram.

"(Hello? Can all of you hear me?)" The soft voice asked.

"Oh hey! It's Histy!" Neptune cheered ecstatically.

"...Histy?" IF and Compa all asked in confusion, as they all heard the mysterious voice as well.

"You mean Histoire, right?" Cooper added at Neptune before facing the hologram again. "When you said you'd contact me and BT again real soon, I didn't think you meant like this," the pilot said in a relatively relaxed manner.

"Wait, you know Histy too?" Neptune gasped.

"Histy? Histoire? Contact you? What in the world are you two talking about?" IF asked in an increasingly frustrated tone.

The hologram's voice sighed in exasperation. "(I'm supposing you two haven't heard of me?)"

Both IF and Compa shook their heads no.

"Nep-Nep and mister Cooper didn't tell us anything about you," Compa added in disappointment.

"(My name is Histoire, the Tome that records all that happens in Gamindustri," the voice coming from the holographic tome explained before continuing. "Neptune, Cooper, or BT haven't told you anything yet, have they?)"

"Told us what?" IF tapped her foot impatiently.

"Mister Robot and mister Cooper only told Nep-Nep and I that they were on a mission to save the world."

"Yeah," Cooper stepped in. "This Histoire person, or however she wants to be called, was basically the one that gave BT and I our mission to save Gamindustri or whatnot, and our key to returning to the frontier..."

"Correct," BT suddenly interrupted while still displaying the hologram from his optics. "Our objective is to collect the remaining key fragments in order to assist in Histoire's current predicament."

"(They're right,)" Histoire began, "(Gamindustri is in danger, and to save it, I first need to escape this prison I'm in. Unfortunately, the key to open it was broken into fragments scattered across the other landmasses.)"

"And that thing my Titan's currently holding is one of them, isn't it?" Cooper pointed towards the object being analyzed in BT's hand.

"(Correct, what I'm communicating with you through is one of those Key Fragments. If you all can find the other three I can get out and together we can stop Gamindustri's destruction.)"

'Huh, one down, three more to go,' the pilot thought to himself as he began to reminisce on his childhood back on the frontier farmlands before the war. 'Can't be that hard, I suppose. Almost like finding three needles in three different haystacks,' Cooper recalled during his time on the homestead farms. 'Good times, good times...'

"(I understand if you two aren't up to help,)" Histoire said, referring to Compa and IF. "(As neither of you have any obligation to this, I can see how this may be—)"

"Well, I suppose that travelling to the other landmasses couldn't hurt. I guess I'm coming with you on this journey of yours." IF immediately replied. "To be honest, if it weren't for that robot friend of his, I think you would probably fail." She turned towards the Titan before continuing. "So you pretty much need my help."

"Gee, thanks." Cooper sarcastically sneered at IF with a look of irritation beneath his helmet visor as he crossed his arms. "Way to make a person feel grateful..." For some reason or another, he could hear Neptune snickering behind his back about being 'carried' by an 'overpowered tank'.

"(You'll help?)" Histoire asked not expecting the given reply.

"Me too!" Compa chimed in on IF's comment. "I'm not the strongest, but I'll help as well!"

"(I...I'm shocked, thank you.)" Histoire then explained to everyone "(The task I need all of you need to accomplish is locate the rest of the Key Fragments. There's one in each land.)"

"Fair enough, just find a thing like this in each place," the young pilot shrugged. "With BT's navigational and tracking systems, we'll get this done without a sweat."

"Pilot, accounting for environmental factors in this region, it is vital to perspire under extreme heat conditions in order to maintain body temperatures."

"It's just an expression, BT. It just means that we'll get it done easily." Cooper lightly chuckled before turning to face the hologram of Histoire along with everyone else. "So, where do we go first then?"

"Laststation, the land of Black Regality," IF answered.

"Ahh, that's right!" Compa excitedly added "Laststation is the closest land to Planeptune. We can take one of the air ships to travel there too!"

"Ooooooo, an air ship! I wonder if it'll be like a flying cruise ship!" Neptune jumped in excitement as her thoughts began to race ahead of her "Maybe it'll have pools, water-slides, games, or best of all... an all you can eat buffet with pudding!"

"(One more thing,)" Histoire said as a metal box suddenly appeared right next to the hologram. "(I found several unusual items caught in the dimensional rift in your world. I believe that this will help all of you along your journey. Good luck.)"

The mysterious crate looked as if it was taken straight out've the facility on Typhon. The large metal container that had come from BT and Cooper's world was painted in a standard IMC white coating along with the usual gunmetal grey and silver trimming and contours that gave the crate its factory-like finish. Its interior was sealed by a pair of mechanical hinges and console display that could easily be pried open with a data-knife. On the top of the supply cache, there was a large, navy blue, diamond-like logo that had the words 'ARES Division' printed on it.

"Huh, convenient." Cooper noted to himself. Considering he just nearly expended all his ammunition left in his CAR submachinegun, the sight of a resupply crate was more than a welcoming breath of fresh air for him. "Might be a good chance to restock on new weapons and equipment as well."

"Woohoo! And we get a lootbox as well! I hope it's an ultra-rare legendary drop with my name on it!" Neptune shouted as she made a bee-line rush towards the crate "Gimme! Gimme! Gimme!"

As the young lilac-haired preteen ran around in joy past everyone, Cooper sighed as he tugged behind on Neptune's hoodie, sending her to a cartoonishly screech and halt besides him right before plopping to the ground.

"Whoa, easy there," Cooper interjected, looking back and forth at the time-travelling device on his left arm as well as BT and the hologram projecting. "Before we do anything else, can you answer a few questions?"

"(A few,)" Histoire replied. "(It requires a lot of energy to communicate through these Key Fragments, especially after transporting items caught between worlds. Even with the help of your companion, I can't keep the connection for much longer, so ask.)"

"First, who in the world was that crazy woman that nearly tried to kill us earlier? I'm assuming she had something to do with getting you stuck wherever you are."

"(Unfortunately that is too much to explain in the short time I have. But to put as quickly as possible, that woman is Arfoire. She is the one spreading those monster-spawning discs and the one responsible for our current situation,)" Histoire sighed.

"Fair enough." Cooper had a feeling that Histoire was trying to hide specific details from her answer, but considering the party's current circumstances, the young pilot decided to simply continue with the next question. "Second, how the world did a gun just suddenly pop out of my hands with this thing?" Cooper asked as he pointed to his time-travelling device raised on his left arm. "And how in the hell did this transform my Titan as well?"

Despite her holographic form as a floating book, Histoire began to examine the mysterious arm mounted device Cooper had taken back in the Fold Weapon station. _'Hmm, very peculiar,'_ she thought to herself as she noticed shares resonating throughout the device.

"(If you don't mind me asking, where did you get such a device from?)"

' _I thought I was the one asking questions here,'_ he thought to himself before answering back to Histoire. "Had this thing with me back on my world before BT and I got sent to this place." Cooper answered as he began tinkering with the tool on his arm. "Supposed to have the power to temporarily bend space and time to one's will, which it doesn't seem to be doing right now."

"Wait, you're a time-traveler as well?!" Neptune interrupted. "No fair, I'm supposed to be the main character here. Don't tell me you're also a reincarnating doctor or mad scientist too!"

"(I see... that's very interesting…)" Histoire replied, ignoring Neptune's comment as she contemplated Cooper's current situation. "(Based off everything you said, my best guess is that the item on your arm appears to have the ability to manipulate the power of shares.)"

"What? Manipulate shares?" Both Compa and IF asked in surprise.

"(Indeed, which explains how they are able to create anomalies in the balance of shares, thus drawing energy and temporarily invoking the power of the goddesses' HDD form.)" Histoire then elaborated. "(Although the process is more similar to drawing from the same source of energy, rather than copying everything at once.)"

It then came to the idea of Cooper that perhaps this 'share' energy is synonymous, if not completely the same as, the Fold Weapon's Ark energy back on Typhon. Histoire's explanation did raise a good point with Cooper and his titan's sudden new abilities, especially when the young pilot considered BT's ability to adapt to any situation at hand. But still, borrowing powers from gods? That still felt a bit way too far-fetched, even for him.

"Cool, so that's like your super-special-move and stu— wait a second, HDD form? You thief!" Neptune exclaimed. "That's my secret transformation!"

Compa and IF sighed as the young pilot simply ignored Neptune's comment, much to her disappointment.

"Last question," Cooper paused for a moment as he briefly glanced at the Neptune sitting down next to him before continuing. "You mentioned something about the term 'goddess', just like what BT mentioned earlier." The pilot then began to consider Neptune's sudden transformation several minutes ago as well. "Just what _is_ Neptune, exactly?"

"(In her Hard Drive Divinity form, she is Purple Heart, the goddess of Planeptune,)" Histoire said as she sensed Cooper staring at both her and Neptune in suspicion before continuing. "(I understand that you might feel doubtful towards Neptune's...more than carefree...attitude. But please, I ask that you trust in her abilities, just as I sense the bond between you and your companion. Despite what you might feel, she has the potential to save Gamindustri along with you.)"

For some reason or another, those words had hit Cooper like a truck. He began to remember his pilot training, as his late mentor's words echoed throughout his head in a flashback.

 _"To learn new skills, we need to be in the right state of mind,"_ a grizzled male voice said to Cooper as he pictured himself on a virtual open meadow scattered with vibrant trees and shrubs along with marble-like structures. It was the surface of the Militia home planet, Harmony, albeit a digitized rendering of the planet. _"Ah. Much better,"_ the voice continued, as it came from a much older individual wearing the exact same pilot gear and helmet visor as Cooper along with olive-colored military garbs unlike the young pilot. _"Technically, I'm not supposed to be training you,"_ the older man, now known as Captain Tai Lastimosa said to Cooper. _"Higher-ups think that it's silly to teach pilots this late in your age, useless even."_ Lastimosa said as he understood firsthand how expendable grunts and riflemen were treated among both Militia and IMC pilots. _"...But in you, I see potential,"_ the veteran pilot praised as he pat a hand on Cooper's shoulder in reassurance. _"Something I can't say I've seen too much of along the frontier... Besides, we're at war. Who's got time for classes, eh?"_

Cooper had taken his mentor's words to heart as he glanced at Neptune, who appeared to be thinking intensely about something. _'Perhaps I've been a bit too harsh on the poor kid,'_ he thought to himself. _'Maybe I should give her a chance after all, see what she's made of. If the captain had more than enough patience working with me, then working alongside Neptune chick shouldn't be that much of a pain in the a—'_

"SooooOOOoooo borring..." Neptune suddenly yawned. "Are we done yet?"

'...Or not.' Whatever impression the young pilot had about Neptune went back to square one. Cooper sighed as he facepalmed in disappointment. With a so-called goddess like her in charge, he could see why the nation of Planeptune has apparently gone to shit.

"Nep-Nep..." Compa nervously smiled at the lilac-haired girl's lack of awareness.

"You didn't listen to anything she said, did you?" a somewhat irritated IF said.

"Oh not really," Neptune shrugged nonchalantly. "I was just too busy thinking about what AWESOME LOOT would be in there for me and Compa, so I kinda just ignored everything Histy and Coop were talking about"

"Yeah, trust is something that isn't exactly given easily, lady," Cooper shrugged. "Anyways, that's more than enough answers to help us for now. We'll contact you again after getting the next Key Fragment. Just make sure you keep up with your end of the deal..."

"(Very well.)" With that, the hologram projected from BT's optics faded out before vanishing entirely.

IF sighed lightly. "Well that's done. Now what?"

"Now, we open the almighty raid boss loot chest that I'll be taking most for myself!" Neptune shouted as she ran up to the supply cache in eagerness. "You, Compa, Beetsy, and Coop can all share twenty percent of it. I'm the main character after all!" Despite her enthusiasm seconds ago, she was obviously struggling to pry open the box. "Arrrgh, why won't this darn box open! Don't tell me it's pay to win!" She shouted desperately.

"Yeah, yours to keep, if you can actually open it," Cooper lightly chucked as he walked over to Neptune now exhausted from trying to brute force the locked container. Using his trusty data-knife, he was able to hack open the console display of the IMC supply cache by 'ice-picking' the main pannel. In a matter of seconds, the edge of the container blinked green before disabling the magnetic lock mechanism and slowly released the top hinges of the crate as it lightly hissed.

As the light mist subsided, Cooper began to look inside the supply cache, with the others approaching to see shortly after. Upon examining the crate's contents, he came across and picked up an array of ordinance including some Frags grenades, Firestars, Electric smoke grenades, and Gravity stars. In terms of small arms, the young pilot grabbed and inspected the two weapons inside the container. One of which was a Volt energy-actuated SMG equipped with Holosights and extended mags, the other was an X-55 Devotion light machine gun with a Threat Scope attachment. But most surprisingly, he found three additional modules for his pilot suit; a Grappling Hook primarily designed to scale large terrain as well as rodeo enemy titans which used a reinforced plasma-like coil instead of the usual cable wire, a rechargeable Stimpack issued to give pilots a burst of speed in order to quickly out-maneuver foes, and several more hand-thrown Pulse Blade kunais normally used to detect targets.

"Nice! And the weapons are brand new too," Cooper said to himself as he looked through the digital schematics of the guns and ammunition. "Plenty of magazine to last for quite a while as well."

"Not bad," IF said pleasantly surprised as she saw the unique weapons and tools Cooper pulled out of the crate. Despite the items' futuristic atheistic, she was fairly certain that they were not from Planeptune by any means. Especially considering the fact that majority of the continent's production consisted of entertainment electronics.

"Ohh, cool!" the impressed Compa added.

"Analyzing metadata," BT interjected as it examined the origin of the mysterious IMC cache. "Pilot, it appears that the contents of this IMC supply crate were originally part of the _Pilot Regeneration Program_ , a project previously conducted by the ARES Division designed to modify a pilot's skills beyond standard capabilities on the battlefield. The program was later shut down by General Marder of the IMC military research division after reports of test subjects failing to survive the augmentation procedure."

"Damn..." just the thought of IMC attempting to create augmented super-soldiers sent chills down Cooper's spine right he attached the rest of the new modules on his pilot suit.

Judging by the pilot's reaction to what BT just said, IF and Compa could tell that wherever the stuff came from, it wasn't exactly from a happy-go-lucky place.

"Hey, no fair! I'm the protagonist, I should be getting some cool stuff too!" Neptune cried out as she pushed aside the young pilot and searched for anything left for herself. Moments later, the preteen then pulled out a mechanical folding blade from the crate, much to Cooper's surprise. The weapon itself appeared to be almost like a katana-like form, but with a retractable cutting edge along with a prominent bevel up to the blade's tip. "Awesome," she shouted as she spun her new weapon around.

"A katana?" Cooper said to himself, "not exactly a weapon I'd imagine a pilot using, honestly." Then again, the pilot could imagine how it was originally intended for a certain Apex Predator mercenary he fought against back on Typhon, considering the now-dead simularcum's affinity towards sharp, cutting, bladed tools. Luckily, he wasn't fighting that ax-crazy cyborg nor her Ronin-class titan. Just the thought of it brought a headache to Cooper along with BT's so-called shortcut. _'At lease she knows how to use a sword, I'll give her that,'_ he thought to himself.

"Yay, Nep-Nep got a new weapon too!" Compa clapped before slowly realizing Neptune had taken the last item inside, bringing a slight frown to her face.

"Aww, don't worry Compa. I'll let you share this awesome badass sword with me," Neptune assured the pinkette confidently. "Unlike mister stingy ol' Coop-scrooge hording all the guns," she said with a sneering grin towards Cooper, much to his disappointment.

"Oh for god's sake," Cooper facepalmed as he failed to comprehend this girl's logic. The young pilot sighed, turning towards his titan in disbelief. "BT, remind me what we're supposed to be doing again?" he asked.

"Protocol 2: Uphold the mission. Our objective is to collect the remaining key fragments on the separate landmasses. As noted by designated unit IF-Unknown-Serial-Number, our closest destination is the territory of Laststation."

"Ooh, this must be like one of those open-world item quests and— Wait a second, Iffy's a SYNTH?!" Neptune suddenly asked, as she heard the Titan addressing their new party member as 'designated unit'.

"Oh no! Iffy is a robot sent from the future to assassin us?" Compa

"I'm not some kind of android, you know." IF said arms folded with an irritated expression in her eyes before turning to Neptune. "And stop calling me Iffy!" she exclaimed.

"Aaawww, but Iffy's such a cuter name."

While Cooper had no qualms at all saying her name the same way as he would BT, he's pretty sure nobody would name their child 'IF,' as in the two letters. The militia pilot had to agree with Compa here, the name 'Iffy' does sound more reasonable, even if he's never heard of anyone naming their child that. "To be fair, it does sound like an actual name after all."

"Understood," BT responded to Cooper's statement as the titan examined the blue jacketed girl. "Scanners subject does not not appear to contain automatonic features. Pilot, our new ally is in fact, biologically human. I have added the name 'Iffy' to my database."

 _'At least she's not some kind of homicidal cyborg trying to kill us, BT,'_ Cooper thought to himself as he recalled his encounter with the certain Apex Predator, Ash. Had it not been for BT's suggestion of a 'shortcut', the pilot would never have needed to navigate through a large prefab-manufacturing labyrinth teeming with hundreds of IMC fireteams, only to confront the axe-crazy simulacrum mercenary in her customized Ronin. Luckily, him and BT had been able to take advantage of her titan's armor vulnerability by using the Scorch loadout's flame shield to melt a hole in the titan's hull and rip the mercenary out of her cockpit before she had a chance to phase out of melee range. In a matter of seconds, the new pilot and titan duo had turned the tables and ended the battle, as BT effectively crushed the helpless enemy pilot it held into a viscous pulp with mechanical bits with a single squeeze of its fist.

"Not you too," IF huffed with a confused sweat drop on her face. "Did it really take that much to convince you I'm human? And I thought I told you all to call me IF," she sighed.

"Sorry bout' that" Cooper replied as he casually gestured to his titan. "My titan here, BT, thought that you were some kind of simulacrum or cybernetic human judging by your name."

"BT? That's your mech's name?" IF asked, now recalling that she had heard Cooper calling his robotic companion that earlier.

"Correct," the large robot nodded in agreement. "I am BT-7274, a Vanguard-class titan of the militia SRS, Special Recon Squadron."

"A titan, huh..." IF quietly said in confusion. "By the way, Cooper, what did you mean when you said 'your end of the deal', earlier?"

"About that," Cooper said as he opened the front visor of his helmet, revealing his face while having some breathing space to gather his thoughts together. "Like I told those two earlier," nodding at Neptune and Compa nearby. "BT and I aren't exactly from this world. Long story short, we're stuck, and this Histy or Histoire lady is our only chance of getting back to the frontier. That is, if we can gather the rest of those things."

In truth, Cooper himself wasn't too sure himself whether or not this Histoire lady would return him and BT back to the frontier. But it wasn't like they had any other way of getting back at this point. The time-travelling device on his hand has malfunctioned, or at the least, works completely different on this world; possibly due to the 'shares' that everyone here seems to know about. Despite the liability of using a device suddenly gone haywire (in the case of Major Anderson), a part of Cooper in the back of his head felt an urge to keep the tool on his arm rather than simply discard it.

"But enough about that," he said in an attempt to lighten the mood as he slung the Devotion on his back. "We should probably get going, world isn't going to save itself, you know."

"Wait, there's no autosave function?" Neptune shouted in disbelief.

"What's autosave?" Compa asked.

Cooper was baffled as to Neptune's thought process, especially when it came to trying to insult him with no avail, or trying to make some obscure reference out of nowhere. "No, I mean that sitting around here isn't doing anyone a favo— ahh forget it."

"Cooper's right, let's get going" IF said with agreement in Cooper's earlier statement. "After we turn in the bounty of that Vermin Guard to the guild, we'll need to go to the city's Sky Harbor to reach Laststation."

"Good point, we should probably pick up some more supplies on our way there as well. Granted, if there's even any shops and vendors not closed down from all these monster attacks lately." Cooper learned from Compa that many of this shopping districts have been closed or vacant indefinitely due to the recent incidents prior to him and BT's sudden appearance here. On the other hand, the militia pilot wasn't too sure about this 'guild' IF had mentioned, but if it was anything like the freelance mercenaries back on the frontier, they'd probably be awarded money for their contracts; in this case, credits or money to purchase any other necessities.

"Woohoo! Onwards to glory! To Laststation!" Neptune shouted with glee. "Let's go get us some key fragments!"

* * *

Approaching the other side of the cave, Cooper could see that it was already early sunset, as beams of light were shining through the entrance. Were him and BT in that cavern for that long?, he thought. Hopefully he wouldn't have to waste any more time on random monster encounters on their way back to the city.

 _'Finally,'_ Cooper thought to himself.

"Hooray! We made it out!" Compa exclaimed with joy as she caught a glimpse of the exit followed by the others.

As the entire party approached the cave's exit, IF curiously approached Cooper and BT. "Just wondering, how did BT get that flamethrower weapon out of nowhere? I didn't notice anything like that on him before we fell through the cave," she asked, referring to the Thermite Launcher and flame projectors mounted on BT's Scorch loadout.

"Good question, me and Compa also saw Beetsy using some kind of giant machinegun before we met you Iffy! He went all 'Dakka Dakka Dakka Dakka!'" Neptune said as she eyed a suspicious glare towards Cooper. "Don't tell me you gave him some kind of item hacks too, you cheater!"

 _'Dakka?'_ Cooper asked himself. _'Is she trying to imitate the sound of a gun or something?'_

"Nep-Nep," Compa said in a concerned voice. "It's not nice to accuse people."

"Oh yeah, forgot to mention that," Cooper replied as he ignored the latter's random accusation. "As a Vanguard-class Titan, BT can switch to different loadouts on the fly." The young pilot then turned to his metal companion, as it now switched back to its default Expedition loadout. "Speaking of that, what's our current inventory status BT? Minus our new equipment of course. I wanna make sure we even have enough space to store anything else."

"Optimal weapon systems operating at 75% efficiency. Titan ammo capacity at half capacity," BT replied in its usual neutral tone "Pilot, it appears that our storage capacity has increased by approximately 200%. Determining cause of anomaly, unknown."

If Cooper had to guess why, it would probably be the same reason as their appearance on this world. "Well, can't really complain about that," he shrugged.

"Expanded inventory size? But we haven't even reached NewGame+ mode yet!" Neptune grinned with excitement "That's it," she snapped her fingers with an idea lighting up in her head. "From now on you're in charge of item inventory and accounting!"

"Yeah, that would be great!" Compa added.

"Understood," BT replied to Neptune's declaration. "Pilot, as miss Neptune has suggested, it is important that we maintain an inventory, as it will greatly increase chances of success."

While BT's AI was programmed with countless types of sorting algorithms for arranging its items with, Cooper was not exactly the type to keep his inventory organized, let alone clean. This had been especially true in his quarters back during his time as a rifleman. His titan, on the other hand, could easily store several dozen different types of ordinance, weapons, and tools without any problems. And that's not even including BT's 'storage upgrade' announcement as well as its less-than-subtle transformation from during their earlier fight against the Guard Vermins.

IF was somewhat shocked at the titan's agreement with the lilac-haired girl, though she found the idea of having the ability to adapt to any situation at hand quite advantageous for them.

"Yay! Now I can have my own portable pudding stash!"

Cooper had a feeling Neptune was going to advantage of BT's inventory space on useless junk, and this just pretty much confirmed his suspicions.

"While I prefer BT not becoming _your_ personal pack mule," he glared sharply underneath his helmet visor at Neptune, "we should probably pick up the pace if we want to get back to the city before sundown." The young pilot proceeded to embark on his titan soon after.

As BT slightly crouched down and opened up its cockpit, Cooper jumped right into the seat before closing the hatch. Inside the cockpit, several panels slid together into a mesh screen before displaying a live image feed and HUD. Within seconds, the young pilot was in full control of his Titan and its peripheals.

"Transferring controls to pilot," the titan noted as Cooper sat back and took quick a look at the screen's compass.

"So, when do I get to pilot big ol' Beetsy here? I mean I am the main heroine after all," the lilac-haired girl announced.

"Hahahahaha... no," Cooper replied through his speakers.

"Awwh c'mon!," Neptune complained. "I know I'm not an angsty teen with a tragic backstory or Newtype powers, but I deserve to have my own giant super Anime robot too," she cried out.

"How do you expect to control a titan if you can't even pay attention?" Cooper jokingly retorted.

"Agreed, pilot. It is ill-advised for Neptune to establish a neural-link due to her current mental condition caused by amnesia," BT added as everyone except Neptune lightly chucked at the titan's comment.

With that, the group made their way back towards the city of Planeptune.

* * *

 **-End of Chapter 3-**

 **A/N: Hey guys, Megazord here! Apologies on the somewhat short chapter and lack of any lack of progress; still feel like I need to round out Cooper and BT's character and motives, hence why the heavy amount of dialoge. Hopefully this also explains the explains the reason behind Cooper and BT's mysterious new powers. Thank you to everyone that's been reading/following this fan-fiction so far; I promise, they'll be in Laststation starting next chapter, I swear! I want to also thank whoever updated the character categories for the Titanfall section, you're a lifesaver! Next chapter should (hopefully) be out soon.**

 **How would you all feel about me adding a "Cooper's Logbook" just like in the single-player campaign as well?**

 **Cooper should be picking up the rest of the pilots' tactical abilities real soon, including the (in)famous A-Wall.**

 **I also somewhat have a rough idea about how each of Cooper's and BT's new weapons / loadouts respectively will look like and work for the other 3 nations. For Cooper, I plan on giving him the other 'Anti-titan' weapons as Amped upgrades (and yes, I still consider the Sidewinder as Anti-titan, at least, from the first game) excluding the Archer rocket launcher. As for BT, my intention was to have his transformations reflect the four elemental abilities/spell types the Neptunia characters use in Re;Birth1 (e.g: Planeptune = Lighting, Lowee = Ice, Leanbox = Wind, etc.) as well as reflecting the 4 goddess' nations as well. I'm still thinking/brainstorming this out, so feel free to give suggestions or ideas on this.**

 **I hope you've enjoyed the story so far. Please be sure to rate and review, thanks!**


	5. Chapter 4: Welcome to Lastation

_Disclaimer: the Hyperdimension Neptunia series is owned by Idea Factory International, and the Titanfall series is owned by Respawn Entertainment. Both franchises belong to their respective owners._

* * *

 **-Chapter 4: "Welcome to Lastation"-**

After making their way back to the main city and turning in IF's guild contract for a surprisingly large sum of cash, the party soon arrived at the sky harbor linking Planeptune and Lastation. Despite Cooper and BT's lack of any passport as they were stranded on this foreign world, IF had managed to get the pair quickly acquainted with the local guild, issuing them temporary visas to travel across Gamindustri. Much to the young girl's surprise, the titan and pilot duo already appeared to be quite familiar with how the system worked without any issues, as mercenaries and bounty-hunters back on the frontier functioned in a similar manner. IF also took a bit of pleasure knowing that she managed to recruit two new guild members who have had plenty of fighting experience, unlike a certain scatterbrained CPU.

Seeing as it was their easiest and quickest choice without having to hijack a ship or anything, BT appeared to quickly agree with IF's suggestion, with Cooper reluctantly agreeing shortly after. Even if the membership was temporary, the young pilot couldn't help but feel like IF had _really_ wanted them to become official guild members. Still, neither Cooper nor BT had any reason to complain for their new ally's hospitality as the entire party boarded on to the sky ship.

The cargo ship itself appeared to be flying along a rainbow-like path, much to Cooper's surprise. Unlike any of the carrier-class ships on the the frontier, portions of the sky ship seemed to be made out of simple wooden plants as well, despite its ability to easily keep BT on the top without falling through. Besides a few guard-rails and stairs, the top deck was quite spacious and flat, allowing anyone to navigate freely around the ship as they pleased.

Leaning back on a guardrail with his helmet off and gazing across the ship's horizon, Cooper sighed as he pulled out a personal holographic tablet and began to record an entry.

* * *

Cooper's Logbook:

 _Thanks to the time-traveling wrist device captured off Slone's corpse, we managed to escape the destruction of the IMC's Fold Weapon in one piece, though it looks like the Ark's blast radius must have sent BT and I into another completely different world. The device itself must have malfunctioned last minute, similar to the prototype retrieved from Operation Grizzly. Unlike Major Anderson's death, however, it appears to have caused me to age backwards by a few years. Based off my pilot suit's re-calibration, about five years ago; back when I first enlisted to the militia._

 _Better than getting dislodged between a floor and ceiling, I suppose. At least this device taken off the dead Apex Predator seems to have some new functionality to it instead. Let's just hope I don't end up dead using it._

 _Our only chance of returning to the frontier is through this mysterious person who calls herself Histoire, an 'oracle' that records everything on this new world - Gamindustri_ , which seems to be split into four different territories _. She says that she can help bring BT and I back to our world, but only if we help her first. We're now on a journey to retrieve these so-called 'key-fragments' in order to free her from of some kind of prison. Not sure how I feel about taking orders from a tome._

 _Luckily, we've managed to retrieve one of them here on Planeptune thanks to our new allies; three young girls, no older than my current age to be exact. Can't say I'm too comfortable working alongside child soldiers, although BT seems to trust them well enough. Probably since they remind him of Captain Lastimosa's grandchildren? Hell if I know._

 _One of the girls in particular, Neptune, seems to have the ability to transform into a pilot-titan hybrid of some sort. Histoire says that this person is apparently one of the four 'goddesses' that rule this world. Aside from questioning my sanity over everything that's been said and done so far, collecting these remaining key-fragments scattered on each nation is our only hope, it looks like. We're currently en route to the second closest landmass on our search for these fragments._

 _Next stop, Laststation. The land of Black Regality, they call it. Hopefully nothing else gets in the way for me and BT._

 _Until then, this is pilot Jack Cooper, signing o—_ **[*END OF RECORDING*]**

* * *

Just as Cooper was about to finish his entry, from out of nowhere, Neptune suddenly snatched the tablet out of Cooper's hands before taking off with the logbook.

"—the hell?"

"...Oh cool, what's this?" Neptune curiously asked as she strolled off and examined through the item's contents. "Compa, look! I found Coop's personal diary," she said, heading towards the pinkette and Vanguard-class titan on the other side of the deck. The pair appeared to be in the middle of a conversation about BT teaching the pinkette better nursing skills before being interrupted by Neptune.

"Mister Cooper has a blog?" Compa asked confusingly before giving Neptune a concerned expression. "Nep-Nep, you can't just peek at someone's diary. That's rude!"

The nurse-in-training's words seemed to simply pass on deaf ears with the nosy Neptune. "Oooo, I wonder what kind of dark and dirty secrets he has in here," the lilac-haired goddess said to herself as she quickly skimmed through several of Cooper's past entries. "Hmm? Harmony? Typhon? What's a Fold weapon? Is that some kind of plot device?"

"The Fold weapon was a tool designed by the IMC's Ares Division in order to manipulate space and time," BT turned to Neptune and replied. "Using the Ark, the IMC intended to manipulate the Fold weapon to target and destroy the militia homeworld of Harmony."

"Okaaaaaaay, so it's not an origami gun then," the Planeptune CPU scratched her head before continuing to skim the logbook. "Oh hey, there's something about me over here as well," Neptune pointed out to Compa and BT as she scrolled to Cooper's most recent entry "An internal monologue about ME? Wait, does this mean we're gonna be lifelong compadres? Some kind of battle partners? *Gasp* Or better yet, even destined lovers?!"

"...How about being the annoying little sister nobody wanted?" A hand from behind reached over Neptune's head and grabbed the tablet. "I'll be taking my logbook back, thank you very much," the frustrated pilot then added.

"Oh come on, I was just getting to the spicy parts," Neptune pouted before giving a slight sneer. "Like how you intended to ravage my body and all... I know your motive, buster brown," she lied.

"Unlikely." BT suddenly interjected. "Based off pilot Cooper's records and previous relationships, his interests appear to be with older females primarily."

"You're telling me Coop here isn't some loli siscon?" Neptune cried out, attempting to publicly embarrass the face-palming pilot. "So he's into Cougars, aye? Or maybe he's only lusting after my HDD form!"

"Oh for the love of—," Cooper pinched the bridge of his nose as he failed to comprehend this girl's lack of subtlety before facing hit titan. "*Sigh* Don't you think you're giving away a bit too much sensitive information, BT?"

"Objection: Pilot, it is important that we establish a basis in trust and communication among our new companions." BT then turned to face Compa and Neptune. "The use of coherent teamwork has been shown to improve combat effectiveness."

 _'More like giving me a bigger headache,'_ Cooper sarcastically thought to himself.

"Yeah, this is like one of those relationship-building mechanics! We fight together and stuff so our Lily Rank increases!"

"Lily-ranks?" Compa tilted her head in confusion.

"I believe miss Neptune is also attempting to quantify our combat effectiveness rating," BT commented.

"Oh yeah, that's right," Compa suddenly jumped in acknowledgment. "If we fight together, we'll get stronger together as well!"

"Fair enough, I suppose," Cooper reluctantly said, ignoring Neptune's previous comments. "Still, you girls don't need to force yourselves to come along, BT and I can handle it on our own. After all, we've survived worse before, like getting caught behind enemy lines, stuck onto a crashing ship, and so on." Despite saying this, Cooper had to admit that he enjoyed the company of new allies alongside him in this unknown land. No signs of IMC here, at least.

"But, we're supposed to be a team," the concerned pinkette replied in a sad tone. "Aren't we all going to save the world together?"

"Pilot, miss Compa is correct," BT added. "As my scanners do not detect us located on any recorded frontier planet, our best chance of survival is to stay as a team. We will need to work with our new companions if we wish to uphold the mission."

"Compa and that future Gundam to be mine are right-o!" Neptune added. "Once you join a party, you can't abandon it! That goes against the rules, buster. No leaving, no way José! Nuh-uh!"

"Sure, whatever floats your boat," Cooper shrugged before leaning against the railing and giving a sigh of relief. "Look, I'm just glad we were able to get all of here in one piece. None of us are dead, and we're on our way to the second of these four key fragments or whatever." The militia pilot then began examining the LMG slung on his shoulder. "Anyways, but who would'a thought that they could 3D-print rounds here too?" he said to his titan. "Though that shopkeeper down at the harbor did seem a bit shocked when we showed him the gun and ammo schematics. Ain't that right, BT?"

"That's because you have the most overpowered weapon in the entire game," Neptune chimed in. "Of course he'd be shocked and throw you a hefty fee!"

"That's alot, especially coming from the girl who blew her entire budget on scarfing down pudding," Cooper sneered at Neptune as the two gave each other sharp stares.

"Gah, I've been found out!" Neptune jumped. "I used up all my money on sweet... sweet... delicious pudding," she began to drift off.

"*Ahem!*," another voice coming from a short brown-haired girl said as she approached the party. "You mean MY award money from the guild contract? Thanks to Cooper and BT's permits, and all of your spending habits, we hardly have any credits left," she said with hint of irritation.

Compa rubbed her head in a nervous giggle as she hid her handheld little 'novelty' travel trinkets while Cooper whistled off to the side, quietly slinging back his Devotion.

"My pilot and I apologize for the inconvenience, miss IF," BT replied to the young guild member, much to her surprise. "Rest assured, pilot Cooper and I will repay your gratitude as soon as we can."

"Yeah, I don't doubt you and Cooper will pay me back later," IF sighed before nudging her head towards Neptune. "It's her I'm worried abou—"

"Hey look! We're here," Neptune interrupted as she pointed towards the approaching horizon "We finally made it to Lastation!"

The group turned their attention towards Neptune's direction. What they saw in their eyes was a landmass completely different from Planeptune. Grey and black colored industrial buildings designed with a steampunk-like aesthetic of gold, navy, and red trimmings. Several of the dark-colored factories had been built along with towering exhaust ducts and chimneys on top of them, giving an eerie futuristic gothic feel to the nation. Along the city's skyline were series of pipes running along and interconnecting each building, as if the entire place was one giant refinery station.

"Ooo, it's all steampunky and futuristic, but in an _'I never asked for this'_ kind of way," Neptune continued. "I wonder if her goddess is like that as well?"

Cooper looked in awe upon the land of Black Regality. Despite its name, however, he couldn't quite see the regality of the place. Noticing the poor air quality and noticeably cooler climate, he began to wonder if the numerous factories here were the cause of all this smoke and fog polluting the city. It was as if the citizens on this place had no issues at all with the overcast sky and less than suitable gas emissions.

 _'So different,_ _yet... so familiar at the same time,'_ Cooper thought to himself.

"Pilot, though I do not detect any traces of toxic gasses nearby, I advise that you put your helmet back on," BT commented.

The dark overcast clouds and smog surrounding Laststation couldn't help but remind him of one of many frontier worlds been ravaged by the IMC. How the supposedly 'benevolent' corporation had invaded, captured, and subjugated countless worlds on the frontier, taking their resources, polluting their planets, and killing anyone who even dared to resist their iron grip. "I guess some things never change, do they?" he said to himself before taking a deep sigh and putting back on his helmet.

"What doesn't change, mister Cooper?"

"Sorry," Cooper said, realizing what he just said aloud. Slowly shaking his head, "it's just that... this place, feels _way_ too familiar... and not in a good way either."

"O-Oh..." Compa frowned in concern. "I must've brought up many bad memories for you, sorry."

"Don't be silly Compa." Neptune assured the pinkette. "We were just about to have a flashback scene to Coop and Beetsy's tragic backstory and stuff!"

After an awkward moment of silence, the ship soon stopped to a complete halt at Lastation's sky harbor followed by a bell alert and speaker over the intercom.

"C'mon, let's go to the Basilicom first," IF said as everyone proceeded to get off the ship.

* * *

The party of four plus a large lumbering titan seemed to have caught the attention of several passerby's, to say the least. As they made their way towards the Lastation's Basilicom, Cooper couldn't help but notice the several sharp glares from random citizens towards his Titan. He couldn't tell for sure, but the several facial expressions he caught a glimpse of ranged anywhere from fear, to disgust, and down to outright animosity towards BT; as if they were poised to attack at any moment. Based off their reactions, Cooper was tempted to draw out his firearm towards them, if not for BT's helmet comms assuring him that they were "unarmed civilians". For a moment, Cooper began to wonder whether this was any different from the IMC's occupation of militia territory. He knew for sure that they weren't in the frontier, but he still couldn't help but feel like him and BT's presence in the middle of the city was attracting more and more unwanted impressions.

They soon approached a building much like Planeptune's Basilicom. However, the one here had far more muted colors with a narrowed coloration of greys and browns.

"This is Lastation's Basilicom?" Compa asked, slightly disturbed.

IF nodded in response. "Yes. Let's head inside."

Upon entering, Neptune immediately shouted, "'Scuse me! I'm here to see Lady Black Heart, is she around?!"

Another priest, dressed similarly to the first but with black accents on his robes and appeared much older, walked towards the group, grumbling in annoyance. "What do you want brat? This isn't a playground, scram."

"Hey! What's your deal buster?"

"We really need to meet the CPU," Compa explained. "We're trying to get Nep-Nep's memory back."

Neptune immediately perked up. "Ooh, I know Compa! This must be an event flag where I just need to name myself. That'll do the trick!" she said to herself before continuing. "I'm Neptune, and this is Compa, Coops, Iffy, and B—."

"Stop rambling!" the man snarled. "I don't care who or what you are. Now get out of here!"

"How rude," Compa huffed as she puffed her cheeks. "Are you sure you're a priest?"

IF folded her arms with a frown. "They say the clothes make the man, but I guess your CPU isn't all that great."

The priest huffed in derision. "Say what you want. I could care less what that Black Heart is called."

"But we're searching for an item called a Key Fragment," Compa argued. "We're trying to save Gamindustri."

"You're all nothing more than foolish children! Go home," he bitterly spat at the nurse-in-training.

Cooper seemed to have had enough of this priest's attitude. _'Okay, that's it,'_ he thought to himself.

"This guy isn't trustworthy if he doesn't even care about the CPU he serves." IF said as she raised an eyebrow in suspicion. "We're not going to get anywhere with him at this rate..."

"We're not like those buffoons who blindly suck up to Black Heart," the priest now appeared to be at the verge of his breaking point. "You brats better scram already or I'm going to hurt yo—"

"Huh?" Neptune mumbled curiously as she saw the militia pilot snapping at grouchy priest and nearly strangling him.

"Listen here you old hag," Cooper suddenly interrupted, grabbing the basilicom priest's collar in the process. "I didn't come all the way here just to be shoo'd off..."

The priest was struggling to grab the pilot's hand as Cooper lifted him off the ground.

"Nep-Nep, is Cooper playing good cop bad cop with Iffy?" Compa asked worriedly.

"Ooh, I know Compa!" Neptune shouted. "This must be one of those dialogue-choices that affect your story or whatever. And Cooper here looks like he's going for the evil karma route," the young CPU cheered as she pumped her fist in the air. "That's right Coop, let him have it! RE - NE - GADE! RE - NE - GADE! RE - NE - GADE!"

"I wouldn't be surprised if you chose the genocide option every time it showed up," IF sarcastically sneered at Neptune.

In all honesty, Cooper himself wasn't even sure why he had snapped at the bitter old man. Perhaps it was the fact that the priest had gave off a way too similar vibe of disdain like many of the IMC officers he came across, including his confrontation with General Marder back at the Typhon research facility. Under a 'more than unususal' series of time paradoxes, he had investigated firsthand the cold IMC general's blatent disregard for human life for the 'sake of progress'; deeming the militia's struggle as simply shortsighted savages with no worth or future. All of which just seemed to fuel more fire for Cooper's frustration.

"U-Unhand me THIS instant, you—!" The priest shouted as his words came to a halt when he then realized the several foot Titan standing behind the party, with its swiveled eyepiece now glaring at him. "A robot? I thought I-I paid you Avenir people already," he quietly said, now frozen in fear.

"Huh?" Cooper asked as he released his grip on the frightened priest's neck in confusion, dropping him back on the floor.

What was once disgust and arrogant pride in the priest's eyes were now replaced with pure dread for his life. After standing himself back up, he proceeded to toss the group a large wad of cash underneath his counter.

"Here's all that's left of what we made. Please! Just leave me alone!" He screamed in terror before slamming the door shut, leaving the group baffled.

"What the?— Well, this should pay off all our expenses from earlier," Cooper remarked as he handed the sum of credits to IF.

"No kidding, enough to pay for Nep's pudding glutton and then some. Could probably a night at an inn with a bed for each of us," IF nodded as she counted the cash before turning to BT. "Maybe even a small garage for him as well?"

"Woohoo! Now we can intimidate people for money and stuff!" Neptune shouted. "Let's scare the crap outta everyone we don't like!"

"The use of fear-tactics have proven to be a useful strategy in asymmetric warfare," BT inquired.

"Great, now I'm a extortionist..." Cooper sarcastically groaned, shaking his head.

"C'mon, let's go," IF shrugged. "No use standing around here."

* * *

"Now what do we do?" Neptune growled as she and the others sat around in a small park within Lastation. "Can't believe we got kicked out of the Basilicom thanks to Coops here scarring the piss outta' that old geezer."

"Excuse me?" Cooper said arms crossed as he stood by a nearby pillar. "Just a few minutes ago, you seemed to be perfectly fine with extorting people for money."

"Yeah, but we're the good guys! I was just kidding earlier," she shrieked. "I don't wanna have the bad ending!"

"*Ahem* Anyway, why don't we do some quests while we're here?" IF redirected. "Remember how the key fragment was with that disc in Planeptune? It should be the same in Lastation."

"Good point," Cooper stood up saying. "BT, see if you can pick up any readings similar to the key fragement earlier in here."

"Understood, pilot"

"So, what's with this 'Avenir' they were talking about earlier?" the militia pilot asked everyone in the party.

"Beats me," Neptune cluelessly shrugged.

"Accessing files. Unknown," BT added.

"Let me try," IF said as she pulled out one of several phones from her oversized belt. "Huh, that's weird," she starred at her screen in confusion. "I can't seem to connect to anything else here; not even the guild or Lady Black Heart's blog."

 _'Lady Black Heart, I'm guessing she's supposed to be the 'goddess' of this land?'_ Cooper thought to himself.

"Big brother is watching..." Neptune commented as she waved her hands in an eerie gesture, attempting to frighten Compa and IF.

"Knock it off," Cooper lightly bopped Neptune in the head.

"D'oh!" Neptune cried out as she rubbed her head.

"Seriously, this isn't some kind of dystopian novel or anything," IF added as she continued messing with her phone. _'At least, I hope it isn't one.'_

"So, anything we can do this?" Cooper asked, referring to his Titan and IF's current predicament.

"Wireless network restricted. Direct access point is required," BT pointed out.

"Direct access point, you mean like that one over—Oh..." Cooper froze as his eyes gazed on the large radio dish-like tower on top of the Basilicom's tower. "...Found it," he pointed towards the top of the station.

"Wait a second, how are you two even going to get up there?" IF raised an eyebrow. "Last time I recalled, neither of you can fly that high."

"Who said anything about flying?" Cooper joked. "BT, you think we might be able to hack into their network manually from that satellite dish?"

"Plausible. Scans detect that a throw combined with additional climbing is our only option here," the vanguard-class titan replied as it lowered a hand to the ground. "Your data knife may be able to probe a direct access point to the nation's network."

"You're tossing him?" the short blue-jacketed girl said in utter shock. "You can't be serious."

"What? That robot's insane!" Neptune shouted in surprise.

"I am incapable of insanity, miss Neptune."

Cooper only chuckled at BT's remark as he walked towards his titan; remembering the first time he was thrown by BT back at the interstellar beacon.

"Will mister Cooper be alright?" Compa asked.

"Yeah, don't worry about me. My jump kit should easily break my fall," he reassured the nurse-in-training before getting held on to by BT. "Just like before, right BT?"

"Not exactly," the large titan answered as it picked up Cooper off the ground. "Accounting for change in body mass since last time."

Moving into a quarterback-like pose, BT held its free hand toward the top of the tower, scanning everything ahead of it before continuing.

"Calculating wind: 3 knots, heading 87. Distance: approximately 539 meters, fog up ahead," the titan said as it's headpiece turned towards Cooper before clenching its arm pointing upwards. "Trust me."

BT then lunged forward in a wide striding motion, tossing Cooper vertically as close as possible to the top of the tower

Cooper was thrown a great distance upwards, zooming through all the smog and small clouds that hazed the ground.

"Ooo! Ooo! Me next, me next!" Neptune waved her hands in anticipation.

"Unessessary," BT replied "Pilot Cooper is the only one here capable of safely descending from that height without attracting significant attention."

"Aww... maybe next time? Please?"

"Noted, though your current cranial injury may present an issue for future situation."

"Yeah, don't want you to lose even more of your memories," IF sneered.

* * *

Cooper managed to land near the base of the satellite dish in the center of the city. As soon as he safely jumped on the floor, BT began to communicate though his helmet.

"(The access port is near your location. Marking it on your display.)"

An updated HUD appeared in Cooper's helmet showing the dish's control station to be ahead of him. With his parkour skills and jump boosters, the pilot was able to easily navigate through the scaffolding and rooftops to reach the top of the tower without any problems. Using his suit's stealth ability to avoid any detection by the patrolling guards, he managed to circumvent any unwanted attention.

Knocking out a few unaware stray guards in the process, the young pilot didn't seem to pay too much attention to their outfits. The unconscious guards appeared to be dressed in a dark military-like outfit colored similarly to the Basilicom priests along with an unusual "Avenir" logo patched on to them

Upon reaching the control station, Cooper quietly pulled out his Data knife in his inventory and carefully jammed it into the side's access ports. After a few moments of blinking followed by a holographic ring displaying from the knife's base, Cooper had successfully breached into the main network of Lastation for himself and IF. Securing a direct connection in the first place was one thing, preventing it from detection would be another.

The only thing left now was to test the link "Let's hope this works," he said to himself.

"Hey BT, see if you can get a probe directly into the network and bypass their security for me and IF. Download any maps on Lastation to help us find the key fragment as well."

"Understood, process is now downloading in background. We are now connected to their network."

 _'Nice, now to tell the others down there on the ground...'_ Cooper thought to himself as he pulled out the data 'ice-pick' from the dish's console.

* * *

Meanwhile, back on the ground...

"Incoming message from pilot Cooper, opening up comms." BT suddenly alerted the party.

"Hey IF," Cooper's voice said through BT's speakers. "Try check your phone now."

"What're you talking about—" IF said, as she pulled out her same phone earlier and saw its screen on the guild page. "Huh, nice! What'd you do?"

"Let's just say that I got around their firewall," he said twirling his knife around clumsily before sheathing it.

"Well get down here as soon as possible, I just a job posting that could help us. We'll need to pick it up from their building just north of here."

"Got it. On my way down," Cooper nodded before hanging up the call and carefully making his was off the radar dish.

* * *

Not to Cooper or BT's awareness, another individual appeared to be closely observing the pilot and titan duo ever since the group's departure from the Basilicom. The tomboyish figure had short, white hair and blue eyes along with a black business coat as she stood on the staircase leading to the Basilicom's roof. She could've easily been mistaken for a boy, if not for the short skirt and knee-socks she wore.

"Interesting, so they're directly infiltrating the nation's tapped-network?" the person, now identified as Kei, said to herself before proceeding to walk back down. "Perhaps we might have a chance to stop Avenir and save Lastation after all..."

* * *

Using the pilot suit's jump kit to cushion any impacts, Cooper quickly made his way down the tower before regrouping with the others, as they soon made their way towards the nation's guild hall. Just as before, he and BT's presence seemed to have caught some more vitriolic looks from random citizens as they walked pass them. As they passed through the entrance, the group walked into the Guild building and looked through various job postings and requests, bypassing most of them.

"So this is the guild area for Lastation, huh?"

"Yup," IF nodded. "Each nation has their own."

Compa stopped in front of one. "Hey, look at this quest. Someone wants some monsters killed."

Neptune raised an eyebrow. "Aren't all of them like that? We shoot stuff and grind XP and money?"

IF shook her head in denial. "Not all. Some involve collecting things and others involve finding something. But for our purposes the monster-killing ones are what we want to stick to."

"Yeah, let's just pick up something before BT and I get jumped" Cooper said as he looked around the area cautiously with eyes caught on himself and BT.

"Here we go," IF said as she found one that matched the same description from her phone.

"Then let's take it!" Compa exclaimed happily.

"Yeah!" Neptune cheered.

* * *

The group walked through the streets of Lastation looking for the one who requested the job. However, as they did, Cooper looked ahead and saw a young woman with short, messy blue hair and amber eyes, a small bandage on her left cheek, wearing bronze welding goggles atop her head, a black tube top under a mostly unbuttoned red jacket that showed her moderate cleavage, a white scarf, light brown slacks, and simple black shoes.

"Oh!" Compa exclaimed as she saw the woman. "Is that her? The one who needs us to fight monsters?"

"Very likely, based off her body gestures" BT noted.

"She's kinda small…" Neptune commented, perplexed. "I was thinking like, a big burly man with a weird accent who looked like a war criminal or something. You know, like screaming something like 'Oi! This fight was what you were born for!' or whatever..."

"Why on earth would you think _that_?" Cooper asked with confusion and surprise at her somewhat accurate description of Blisk.

"She's staring at us…" Compa noted lightly, "now she's waving… I think she's the right person."

With a shrug, IF stated, "I suppose she's come to the same conclusion about us."

"So," the blue-haired woman casually asked as they approached. "You're gonna take the work I ordered?"

Cooper raised an arm. "Yeah, we're... well, I'm... just surprised you're not shooting us on sight." The sight of someone around here that didn't either want to kill him or run away in terror was nice change of pace for the pilot.

The woman leaned to the side slightly in confusion. "Huh? Why would I do that?"

Cooper motioned towards his titan. "People around here didn't seem to take to kindly with me and BT waltzing around town."

"Eh, I don't have any problem with either of you," she shrugged "In fact, you two seem like someone my old man would wanna talk to."

"Really now?" Cooper raised an eyebrow underneath his helmet. "Your dad?"

"A close family friend of my dad's, actually. Seems to be pretty familiar with robots and powersuits; occasionally helps around the factory as well."

"Powersuits? Factory?"

Neptune patted his back softly. "Aaww, looks like Coop found a new friend to talk to."

IF simply sighed in frustration.

The woman starred back and forth between BT and Cooper before shrugging. "Well, I guess you'll be fine. I should probably introduce myself as well. My name's Chian, I run a small factory down from here called Passé.

IF nodded as she motioned everyone else. "My name is IF. And with along with me are Neptune, Compa, Cooper, and BT."

"Greetings, I am BT-7274," the titan raised its hands in greeting the woman.

"I see. You sound alot like those machines my old man would sometime bring in and toy around with," Chian mumbled in thought as she glanced at BT. "Now, no use standing around here. Follow me."

* * *

Soon, the group, with the exception of BT, were standing inside of a small restaurant with multiple tables scattered throughout and a bar on one end with tall, green barstools. Luckily, the large titan stood right outside peeking through the open window

"Welcome to my home," Chian greeted as she led the group in. "It's not much, but hopefully it'll do."

"The inside of this is like home sweet home. Like back on the frontier," Cooper said to himself.

"Agreed. The architecture appears to resemble pre-war design similar to that of the planet Harmony."

IF folded her arms in mild confusion. "Didn't you say you ran a factory? This looks more like a cafeteria."

Chian nodded and explained, "My parents run the restaurant. The factory is next door." Rubbing her cheek lightly, she continued. "I'm sure you'd rather speak somewhere cleaner. Though I probably should've made room for your friend as well, my bad."

"Fine either way, honestly," Cooper added. "Don't sweat it about BT."

"Dibs on the barstool!" Neptune exclaimed before hopping one of said barstools and spinning around on it. "With this cafeteria you could order a heck load of puddings!"

 _'I could probably use a bottle of beer as well,'_ Cooper thought to himself.

"That's not gonna create revenue, you know?" Chian chided. "The factory isn't enough, so we make do with the cafeteria too."

"Hitting on hard times, I'm guessing?" Cooper asked.

"Yeah," Chian nodded. "Business has been pretty slow lately around here. With the trade routes here blocked, all we can really do is put our best foot forward."

"Sorry to interrupt," IF spoke up, "but mind telling us the details of this mission?"

Chian nodded in response. "Yes of course. I need you to kill some monsters obstructing the trade route. It used to be safe, but recently large monsters showed up and took roost there. And with that route blocked, all trade has stopped."

"Why hasn't anyone done anything sooner?" IF questioned.

Chian sighed heavily. "Well... they've tried. But no one's made it back alive."

"Damn..." the young pilot said to himself.

"(Pilot, by cooperating with the local residents here, she may be able to assist us in locating the key fragment)," BT spoke into Cooper's helmet.

"Hold up, you mean to say that we're on some kind of _suicide squad_ now?"

Just as before, Cooper again lightly bopped Neptune on the head, knocking her down. "Sorry. You were saying, Chian?"

Chian then handed a piece of paper to Cooper. "This is where I think the two monsters have roosted. Don't know if you guys can actually take it down, but, good luck."

The militia pilot nodded in return as he turned and handed the paper out the window for his titan to scan.

"Understood. Eliminate hostile mechanical avian lifeforms." BT replied.

"Let's go," IF insisted.

Chian pondered about the pilot and titan duo as the party left towards the location. "Huh, those two kinda remind me of the stories old man MacAllan always told me as a kid. Weird..." she said to herself.

* * *

"Is this the road?" Neptune asked as they entered a long, hillside path along a small canyon.

"I believe so," IF answered.

"Watch our step," BT warned as they began walking the path.

"Righto!" Neptune cheered. "Let's find that monster!"

Cooper frowned in thought as he looked around before embarking on his titan. "I don't like this, feels like we're running into an ambush. Be careful, everyone."

* * *

In the distance, a mysterious figure stood over the cliffs and carefully observed the group.

"So... she's here too, huh? Though who are those two robots with her— wait a second!" the figure asked herself, as she caught glimpse of the Cooper and BT. "Dammit! I should've known she'd be working with Avenir to take me down as well. I'll kill them too."

* * *

"I'm tired…" Compa moaned as she sat on a rock.

"Yeah... I'm pooped..." Neptune added as she sat next to the pinkette nurse.

"Oh come on," IF grumbled, "we've only just started!"

"Our travel distance is less than a kilometer. Do you require rest?" BT asked.

"Not reall—" Cooper began to say, but was quickly interrupted by Neptune.

"Yeah that's a great idea, let's have a pudding break!" Neptune cheered. "Better yet, why don't give me and Compa here a piggyback ride, big guy?"

"Ooo, I never rode on top of a giant robot before," Compa said excitedly.

"Understood," the large titan said as it lowered itself. "Allow me to carry you and miss Compa for the time being."

"You can't be serious..." Cooper said to himself

"Yay!" Neptune and Compa cheered as the two climbed on top of BT's back before openeing up a pack of pudding.

"Wha –?! You too?" IF groaned in annoyance. "C'mon, don't just spoil them..."

"But my feet hurt," Neptune complained.

"We must uphold the mission," BT added. "It is important that we don't overexert ourselves, as miss Neptune and miss Compa do not appear to share the same threshold of endurance as you or pilot Cooper."

Compa frowned with a heavy pout. "I'm sorry I'm so weak…"

"It's fine," Cooper said as he jumped out on foot and observed the scenery surrounding them. "Don't blame yourself, everyone has to start somewhere, even me."

The nurse-in-training then turned to him in surprise. "R – Really?"

"Yeah, I didn't get to where I was today without years of experience," Cooper said sincerely. "Well, that... and a share of mistakes in the process."

"Indeed. In fact, pilot Cooper suffered memory loss during his first deployment as a rifleman in Operation Fracture," BT added.

Neptune quietly giggled at the thought of Cooper losing his memories as well. After taking a bite of pudding while piggybacking on top of the titan, she then turned to the pilot curiously. "Hey, Coop, how'd you and Beetsy here even meet?"

"Funny you mention that," the young pilot replied. "BT here was originally assigned to my mentor, Captain Lastimosa, the man who taught me the ropes of becoming a pilot."

"Ooooh, was he like some kinda Obi-wan badass and stuff?"

"Pilot Lastimosa served along the Militia SRS under the command of Commander Sarah Briggs," BT replied. "He was an excellent pilot, and a good friend."

"A good friend, exactly..." Cooper added with a slightly solemn tone. "Put himself first in harm's way before any of his subordinates. BT was actually linked to Lastimosa nearly three years ago, at least...until..." Cooper stopped as he realized what sort of information he was giving away. "...Another story for another time," he said reluctantly.

"Aww, but I wanted you to finish the story," the lilac-haired girl frowned saying, not noticing the bitter mood it left Cooper in.

"Hey, guys..." IF suddenly asked as a loud shriek filled the air.

The group all turned and watched a giant, mechanical, multi-colored bird swooping around above them as it then landed on a large rock several meters far away from them.

"Oh go away!" Neptune grumbled. "I'm trying to enjoy my pudding here and you're ruining it you overgrown chicken! Go away, I'm too tired!"

"Miss Neptune, I advise you and miss Compa to stand back," BT noted as he gently placed both girls down on the ground.

"See, look what you made my free piggyback ride do!" Neptune complained as her eyes lit up brightly. She was once again bathed in light; her larger form being revealed as the light died down. "Prepare to become a turkey dinner you overgrown chicken!"

"Well, looks like we found our mark. One of them, at least," Cooper said as he pointed at the large flying creature. "BT, think you can take that thing down over there?"

"Understood." Within a matter of moments, BT was now equipped with a pair of 'flight' pods as the Titan suddenly pulled out a large plasma railgun in its hands. "With the Northstar loadout, we can eliminate targets over long distances."

BT aimed towards the roosting creature as the its charging weapon slowly begun to emit a humming noise. The railgun's chamber began to spin rapidly as its barrel became white hot. With the advanced sniper weapon now at max power, the titan had its reticle dead set on the large mechanical avian before pulling the trigger. In split second, the large sabot launched from the railgun with a thunderous clap. The superheated plasma round pierced through the target's chest at terminal velocity, instantly gibing into strips of metal and flesh. The only thing remaining afterwards were the monster's legs, which simply plopped on the ground.

"What the hell?" IF jumped in shock.

"Well that was a bit anticlimactic," the transformed Neptune said before reverting back into her childish form. "I should've known you'd have some overpowered sniper weapon, you camper!"

"Camper...?" Compa asked...

"Correct. My pilot and I have survived through various hostile environments, although I do not believe that constitutes as the traditional definition of 'camping'," BT inquired.

"Either way, it's dead now isn't it?" Cooper shrugged. "One down, one more to go. Next one might not be as unaware."

The party suddenly herd another screeching echo from the other side of their location.

"Sounds like it wants revenge, huh?"

"That must be the other one," IF said. "We need to hurry."

* * *

The mysterious figure eavesdropping the party earlier immediately observed how the titan quickly laid waste to the creature, slightly tensing in nervousness at the sight.

"Whoa," she said to herself as she wondered how in the world Neptune managed to acquire help from Avenir. "That robot's way too dangerous to be on its own, I'll have to deal with him first."

* * *

The party soon came across the second large monster mentioned on Chian's request slowly circling around them.

"Looks like it didn't take too kindly to killing its brother, did it?" Neptune joked.

"What makes you think that they're siblings," Cooper retorted as he pulled the charging handle on his Devotion. "For all we know, that could've been its daught—"

Suddenly, the large mechanical bird began to fly down towards them.

"It's diving towards us!" Compa cried out.

"Looks like it's my time to shine!" Neptune jumped forward as she once again transformed into her HDD form. "Time to get serious."

"Wait a second..." IF said as she put up a hand, noticing the bird's unusual flight pattern "Something's not right here..."

"What do you mean?" Neptune asked as she readied her sword in an attack stance.

Before she even had a chance to strike, the large creature crashed in front of them before collapsing on the ground.

"It's... already dead?" she froze in confusion.

"Looks like someone did our work for us," Cooper said as he approached the corpse. "BT, autopsy?"

"Scanning:" BT replied as the light on it's eyepiece shined on the creature. "It appears that the avian lifeform has been mortally wounded prior to our arrival. Scan's indicate multiple lacerations and incisions located on its body. Weapon of cause appears to be of similar properties as miss Neptune's current tool."

"So...mission success I'm guessing?" Cooper replied. "You guys return by to Chian. BT and I will search around and see if we locate the key fra—"

"Pilot, incoming projectile." BT suddenly interrupted as the large titan pushed both Cooper and Neptune out of the way of an energy slash barely missing the two.

"What was that?" Compa asked to everyone as the vanguard-class titan pointed towards the attack's origin.

Getting themselves up, the party then turned their attention towards the source of the slash. From that direction, a woman with long, hip-length, wavy white hair and blue-green eyes with the same symbols as Neptune's stepped out from behind a rock with a smirk. The woman wore a bodysuit that was largely black with white accents that exposed a fair amount of her moderate bust, with detached sleeves and thigh-high boots. Small mechanical sections were floating along the woman near her shoulders, waist, head, and feet, and large white wings made of energy.

"I'm impressed you noticed me and avoided my attack," she said.

* * *

 **-End of Chapter 4-**

 **A/N: *blech* I really should try not to rush everything last minute. Apologies if the story seems to be tattered with grammar errors left and right. Got caught up with the recent livefire update and binge-watching a few series. Anyways, I hope you guys enjoyed Cooper and BT's encounter with the Lastation priest. The idea is for Cooper to initially see the place a nothing more than an IMC-controlled homeworld. Sorry about leaving it at a bit of a cliffhanger with them coming across Noire, kinda have a plan on how I want the fight to turn out. Hoping to get the next chapter out real soon as well.**

 **Please be sure to rate and review, thanks!**


	6. Chapter 5: Blacklight

_Disclaimer: the Hyperdimension Neptunia series is owned by Idea Factory International, and the Titanfall series is owned by Respawn Entertainment. Both franchises belong to their respective owners._

* * *

 **-Chapter 5: "BlackLight"-**

The white-haired woman stepped out from her hiding spot and smirked at BT in amusement. "I'm impressed you noticed my attack, robot." Despite the current façade she gave off, she knew fully well that the robot standing in front of her was dangerous.

The mysterious woman had to find a way to deal with that titan, quickly. Or at the very least, move it out of her way; lest she wanted to become a puree of blood and metal. In her mind, all she needed to do was close the distance between herself and that sniper weapon, close enough to distract or neutralize the target.

Judging by her earlier assessments, the robot appeared to have some sort of charge-up time to at least aim the weapon, and was limited to long-range capabilities only.

"It's been a while, Purple Heart." The white-haired woman greeted as she grasped a large black and white two-sided broadsword in her hand.

Six beeps from the weapon. That was all the time she needed to deal with the robot.

Neptune tilted her head in confusion. "What are you talking about? My name's Neptune, lady."

' _You never listened to Histoire's little speech back then, did you?'_ Cooper thought to himself. Then again, it wasn't like he believed her too much either.

Compa tilted her head curiously at Neptune before facing the woman. "Hey Nep-Nep, she looks kinda like you after you transform."

"Nep-Nep?" the white-haired woman asked curiously.

"Yeah, she kinda does, doesn't she?"

"Indeed." BT added as it turned to Cooper. "Pilot, this individual appears to be wielding a similar weapon to miss Neptune's. The same one used to eliminate the avian creature earlier. Her appearance also closely resembles miss Neptune's as well."

"Friend of yours, I'm guessing?" Cooper jokingly asked the transformed Neptune, as he slowly raised the LMG towards the white-haired woman.

"Beats me. Let's try asking her," the Planeptune CPU replied as she casually waved a hand at the woman. "Hey lady, do you know me by any chance? Were we supposed to be friends or something?"

"I was being sarcastic…" the militia pilot said with a sweat drop on his face.

"Wait, you don't know me?" the white-haired woman said with a confused look.

"Well I don't think we've met before, have we?" Neptune added she struggled to remember who this person was with no avail.

"Miss Neptune is currently suffering memory loss due to a head concussion," BT explained.

' _It makes sense now. So Avenir must have been manipulating her mind to take over Lastation? This is a low, even for them...'_ the woman thought to herself as she grinned. _'No matter, I'll be killing two birds with one stone.'_

"Wow, how ironic! It'll almost make me feel bad for killing you," she began to burst out laughing. "Then again, this'll be payback for the humiliation you've given me back then."

' _A shame they had to bring along civilian bystanders into this battle,'_ she thought to herself while she glanced and IF and Compa. _'Still, those two should've seen this coming the moment they betrayed me.'_

"I'm sure you will," Cooper grinned beneath his helmet before setting the Devotion's sights as the target across his party. "Take it you're not much of a sit down and talk things out kind of person?"

The mystery woman ignored Cooper's comment as she flaunted her hair off to the side and faced the purple goddess. "This ends now Neptune! Here I come!"

Before Cooper could have even pulled the trigger, the white-haired woman zoomed past his sights and suddenly crossed blades with Neptune with a loud clash.

Just as BT was about to aim its railgun and ready the acolyte pods, a body flew straight towards the titan, causing it to try and catch the person, and more importantly, distract it.

Much to the Planeptune CPU's surprise, the mysterious woman managed to stagger Neptune with a cheap guard break. Using the opening, she then tossed the surprised goddess towards the aiming titan.

Luckily, BT had caught its ally without her slamming into the titan's hull. What the titan didn't expect, however, was for the white-haired woman to rush up to it before he could even let Neptune go. She had managed to close the distance between herself and the Vanguard-class titan. With the large robot using its railgun as a makeshift baton against the attacker's broadsword, the two exchanged blows against each other as each strike slowly depleted BT's shields.

But with the BT and the enemy's erratic movements combined with the bullet-spread of his LMG's first shots, Cooper couldn't afford to fire any rounds without accidently shooting his titan or Neptune in the process.

"Warning. Engaging target hostile in close quarters. Recommend use o—"

But before BT had the chance to finish its statement, the woman had broken the vanguard-class titan's shields, causing her to cleave right through its railgun. Though she didn't manage to slice it in half completely, she did wedge the blade deep into the weapon, rendering it useless. She then jerked the weapon off BT's hands before kicking the titan off a small cliff.

Right as he did however, the titan had tossed Neptune in the air, allowing her to dive towards her opponent in surprise. Both she and the mysterious woman were deadlocked as they clashed blades.

"BT!" Cooper shouted.

"Oh no! Nep-Nep and mister robot!" Compa said as she pulled out her oversized syringe.

"C'mon, we need to help them," IF said in a serious tone as flicked out the tri-bladed gauntlets from her sleeve.

"No you don't!" The woman pushed off Neptune as she turned to see the three about to engage her. She then launched an energy slash towards the tall rock formations nearby, causing an avalanche of boulders to fall in front of the party, obstructing their path to herself and Neptune. "Say out of this!"

"Your fight's with me!" the larger Neptune shouted as she flew towards the woman who ambushed them, with her sword stance positioned for a heavy strike. The impact of the charge sent the two further down the canyon path road blocked from the rest of the party.

"(Pilot)," BT communicated through Cooper's helmet "(It appears that miss Neptune's adversary excels in close-quarters combat. I highly advise that engage from a distance and provide covering fire for miss Neptune.)"

"Yeah, I'll keep that in mind," Cooper replied as he used his jump kit to quickly scale over the wall of gravel and crushed stone in his way. The militia pilot still wondered how he'll manage not to accidently fire at Neptune considering the speed and range at which she and the similarly-clothed woman are fighting at. "Are you alright, by the way?" Cooper asked through his helmet.

"(Minor hull damage sustained. Primary weapon malfunctioned. Shields currently recharging.)"

"Hey, what about us?" IF shouted at the pilot currently making his way over the steep pile of rocks.

"Don't worry, both of you should be safe back here," Cooper replied, not knowing what the young guild member was actually trying to ask. "BT's scans showed that those birds were the only monsters here, so you two should be safe for the time being," the young pilot getting more and more muffled through the wall, as he began to make his way towards the location of the action. "BT, regroup with Compa and IF as soon as possible."

"That's not what I—, gah!" IF sighed, realizing her words were on deaf ears since Cooper was likely long gone by then. She then shook her head as the turned to the pinkette besides her. "Hey, Compa?"

"Yes Iffy?"

"I think Cooper and Nep just ditched us…" IF tapped her foot and crossed her arms in annoyance. "And don't call me Iffy."

* * *

The two somewhat similarly-looking women continued to duel against each other midair along the canyon surrounded by various rock formations scatter throughout the open area.

"Cross combination!" Neptune shouted as she made two fast swings of her weapon in an X-like formation.

The mysterious woman managed to block both slashes, but not without getting slightly pushed back by the second attack.

"Looks like you've gotten weaker since the last time we've fought, Neptune", she said as she flew towards Neptune with a charged flame blade.

"So you DO know who I am!"

"Perhaps," she grinned. "Not that it matters since you'll be dead after I'm finished!"

"I don't think so," Neptune dodged the strike as she heard a series of footsteps and boosters sounds from a certain pilot approaching. Now countering with her own strike, the twin-braided Planeptune CPU intensely glared at her foe's eyes. "Now you're going to tell me just who I am," she said confidently.

"Hah," the mysterious woman scoffed at her demands. "What makes you think you'll defeat me so easily?"

"Because, I'm not the only one here!" Neptune replied with a confident smirk as she ducked under the woman's slash attack. Right as she dodged the attack and descended to the ground, a stream of bullets whizzed from behind her towards the white-haired target.

Just as she predicted, Cooper landed with a slide as he began firing his light-machinegun towards the mysterious woman the very moment Neptune moved out of the way. The young pilot's X-55 Devotion LMG was held down in full-auto, ramping up in speed and intensity after each round fired, right until the last shot in the magazine. While slow to fire at first, the weapon, at its maximum speed, has been nicknamed the "mean grinder" by several of its users; likely due to its ability to tear through chunks of flesh and bone of its unlucky victims.

Although the heavy ammo rounds didn't appear to pierce through white-haired woman, the sheer impact of bullets knocked her off-guard as each shot more and more back. To the mysterious lady, each LMG round that shattered on contact was the equivalent to a Kevlar vest blocking a single shot. In her mind, while Cooper's Devotion hardly even grazed her, the blunt force delivered by each round fired was enough to hurt, a lot.

"Grrk!" she winced in pain as the last shots fired from Cooper's LMG were followed by an uppercut slash from Neptune sending her backwards.

"Thanks for the assist," the transformed Neptune turned to Cooper with a smile, wondering where Compa and IF were.

"No probl— Watch out!" Cooper said while reloading his LMG before spotting the white-haired woman once again.

Before Neptune could even react to Cooper's warning, the mysterious woman flew back towards the purple-haired goddess, delivering a heavy attack that sent the Planeptune CPU crashing into the side of a cliff.

The white haired woman then quickly charged towards Cooper, dodging and weaving through many of his shots as the militia pilot struggled to keep track of her moving speed. She then knocked the LMG off Cooper's hands with a kick just as he jumped out of the way with his boosters.

"Just give up, I've already disarmed you," the woman boasted with overconfidence.

"Not quite," Cooper said to himself as he backed away and pulled out an arc grenade before chucking it towards the floating woman.

"A bomb?" the white-haired woman sneered as she easily caught the grenade with her free hand, now examining the device. "Seriously? How patheti—,"

Before she could even finish her insult, the arc grenade she caught immediately detonated in front of her. A burst of static electricity surged throughout her body and floating armor pieces, temporarily disorientating and blinding her in the process.

"Gah! Why you—," the woman said as she dropped her weapon on the ground and covered her eyes, recoiling from the arc grenade explosion. Just as her vision cleared up and began to recover from the blast, the woman was met with a punch to the face from Cooper soon after opening her eyes.

Cooper figured that the stun ordinance would be more than enough to district her and close the distance by using his boosters to rush in for a one-two-punch combo. Despite BT's warning of not engaging in melee range, it wasn't like his LMG seemed to exactly tear her to shreds like any other grunt or pilot. So why not just knock her out directly?

The first punch landed on the woman's face as Cooper began a follow-up attack. But before the young militia pilot could land the second hit, the white-haired woman managed to recover from his first punch and suddenly caught Cooper's fist with ease.

' _Well, shit…'_ Cooper thought to himself as he immediately regretted his decision. The militia pilot was astonished, to say the least. Although he wasn't exactly known for his strength among his fellow militia fleet, a punch like that combined with his pilot suit's augmentation should have easily left several broken facial bones, if not a blown up head already. Unless she was some kind of Stalker or Reaper automatronic, no way she could have blocked that attack. Then again, everything he's seen so far has been anything BUT normal.

Assuming her strength was nothing short of a titan, the mysterious woman could have easily crushed his arm despite the armor he had equipped, but instead held Cooper by the wrist and simply tossed him towards the canyon wall. Now having cornered him, the woman then picked up her nearby broadsword and brandished it towards the surprised pilot on the ground.

"Any more tricks up your sleeves?" the woman smirked as she pointed the blade at Cooper's neck. "Or are you ready to give up?"

Staring at the floating white-haired woman and her weapon, the militia pilot couldn't help but notice the woman's resemblance to Neptune's transformed state. He began to wonder whether this woman happened to be the 'goddess' of this land. If so, that might explain the nation's shitty conditions.

At the same time, Cooper's helmet had begun to automatically analyze the figure standing right in front of him. On his HUD, the visor began to display an unusual message that Cooper didn't seem to notice right off the bat.

 ***Analyzing unknown entity . . . Calibrating data from new unit . . .***

"This is your one and only warning, robot. Stay out of this fight, or you'll die for your troubles," she warned the militia pilot before briefly glancing at the glowing device on his arm.

' _Yup, definitely someone with a superiority complex,'_ he thought to himself. _'Wait, did she just call me a robot?'_

"Not so fast!" From the side, Neptune suddenly tackled into the woman before swinging an upward slash that sent her flying into the air. She then turned towards Cooper to make a sneering remark.

"Perhaps you should just stick to guns instead; see what happens when you skimp out on STR?" she joked at the pilot before flying to the other woman and clashing swords once again.

"And perhaps you should stop getting slammed around so much," Cooper sarcastically remarked as he got himself back up and began to formulate a plan, albeit improved one, but a plan nonetheless.

"I don't care how many your Avenir goons you throw at me, Neptune," the white-haired woman said mockingly. "I'll beat all of you!"

"Great," Cooper shook his head. "First, wicked-witch-of-the-east, and now little miss homicide. What could go any better?" he mumbled to himself as an idea popped in his head.

"Jack, I could use some help here!" Neptune shouted as she blocked an incoming strike from the woman.

"Yeah, I'm on it," the young militia pilot replied as he pulled out a data knife and began to run along the canyon walls towards Neptune and her opponent, studying his target along the way.

"Didn't I just say to stick to guns?" Neptune turned and shouted at the wall-running pilot before blocking another one of her opponent's slashes.

"Don't worry," he reassured her. "I've got a plan." Cooper had noticed a clear vulnerability on his opponent: her back side. More specifically, her blind spot which appeared to be a small panel surrounded by floating mechanical bits and 'wings'. "Trust me."

"I don't think so," the mysterious woman smirked as she backed away from Neptune and began using her blade to send multiple projectiles towards the Planeptune CPU and militia pilot.

Thanks to his jump kit and parkour skill along with cloaking, Cooper was able to evade and maneuver around each of the mysterious woman's energy slashes, eventually making his way behind her without her noticing. Lining up the aim, he then fired his suit's grappling hook towards the woman's back. The small claw device shot out from his forearm sank into the woman's back panels as he swung and reeled himself in.

This woman was definitely nothing like a titan, but the young pilot was able to hold a grip on the back of her wings and essentially rodeo on top of her blind spot, for lack of a better word.

"How the?" the surprised woman said as she noticed the now de-cloaked Cooper piggybacking on her wings.

' _Try flying now,'_ Cooper thought to himself before impaling the data knife on one of his opponent's back.

"Grrrrrk! Why you little…" she screeched in pain.

With an oversized hacking 'icepick' jabbed right behind her, the woman lost full control of her movement and began flying erratically, dragging across the area.

"Get off me!" she shouted in pain, attempting to shake off the militia pilot latched onto her back.

' _How the hell do you control this thing,'_ Cooper thought to himself as he attempted using the jammed data knife as a makeshift flight stick all while trying to hold on for dear life.

Having dodged through several rock pillars and stone formations by near inches while looping around and zig-zagging haphazardly across the sky, the vexed woman shouted furiously at Cooper. "You're going to get us both killed!"

"You, maybe, but not me!" the young pilot frantically replied, not considering his plan would end up as it currently is. If this was anything like his fight against the Apex Predator Viper and his customized Northstar Stryder back on the Malta and Draconis ships, Cooper needed to end this, quickly. He then did the first thing that popped up in his head; steer the clumsily flying woman into a crash landing, using her body to break his own fall. What he didn't predict, however, was inadvertently charging towards the transformed Neptune in flight.

"Uh-oh," Neptune quietly said in an almost-comedic manner as the two suddenly flew right into her. The three soon found themselves spiraling downwards towards a small forested area within the canyon.

"(Pilot,)" BT said into Cooper's helmet speakers. "(You and miss Neptune appear to be descending at terminal velocity. I advise that you two brace for impact immediately.)"

"What an excellent idea," the grown Neptune sarcastically shouted. "So what's the next part of your master plan, crashing this plane with no survivors?!"

"Like you could've done any better!" Cooper snapped back at Neptune's remark. "If it weren't for me, little-miss-homicide here would've already killed you!"

"I'll kill you both!" the white-haired woman interrupted, still struggling to shake off the two individuals latched on to her as they plummeted.

" **Aaaaaaaaaaah!** " the three screamed in a comedic manner before crashing into a small open area in the forest, with the mysterious woman falling face first somewhat breaking the other two's fall. The angle of the crash sent Neptune and Cooper tumbling onto one end of the area, leaving a small crater in the middle where the mysterious woman landed at. The three groaned in pain as the dust cloud made begun to settle, now through with that tiresome ordeal.

"Urrrrrgh…" the young pilot, said as he gripped his sides. "Hey, remind me not to do anything like that again…"

"*Cough* Yeah, sure," the exhausted Neptune replied.

"Okay, I've had enough of this," the white-haired woman groaned impatiently, still in pain as she got up and pulled out the knife on her back before picking up her broadsword once again. With a flick of the wrist, her blade suddenly became embellished in flames as its edge began to glow brilliantly. "I was going to make this quick and painless, but neither of you deserve that privilege!" the woman shouted as she slowly walked towards the two, now having a look of death in her eyes.

' _Jesus christ, this woman is more psychotic than Ash,'_ Cooper thought to himself, lying down on the ground as he prepared to pull out a gravity star behind his back and toss it towards the approaching flaming sword wielder. The young pilot looked besides Neptune and saw her in an exhausted state as well, managing to barely get herself up by using her sword as leverage. Just like himself, she seemed to have gotten dazed from that impact, if not already a bit nauseous from that flight. _'Dammit, even if I did land this on her, then what? Not like I have my Devotion with me. Not even sure if it'll buy enough time for me to get Neptune out of here—'_

 _*Click*_

Just then, a pair of cables suddenly sprouted out from opposite ends of the forest shooting straight towards the woman approaching the duo. Each of the cables had a disk-shaped magnet attached to them, latching onto the mysterious woman's sides and anchoring her down on the ground in the process.

"What the—!?" she shouted.

A large metal figure then emerged from the trees and shrubs behind the woman. It was BT perfectly unscathed, besides the lack of and primary gun and some minor paint scratches from the terrain, of course. The woman had made the mistake of failing to realize the rest of her opponent's abilities before attacking it.

The Northstar loadout BT equipped had, in-fact, a tool used to snare those that got too close to itself, the tether trap. The same utility can also be used to ambush unsuspecting targets unaware of their surroundings. Surprisingly enough, and much to Cooper's astonishment, the tether wires seemed to work perfectly fine on the human-sized target, despite its original function designed to deter enemy titans in close-quarters.

"Are you alright?" the Vanguard-class titan faced towards and asked Cooper and Neptune

"Yeah, good to see you in one piece, buddy" Cooper said as he slowly got himself up off the ground, still in a tinge of motion sickness from his earlier 'rodeo' as he brushed the dirt off his visor and shoulders.

"How'd you get here?" the transformed Neptune asked, still struggling to stay upright.

"Protocol 3: protect the pilot. It appears that the your current position was en route to the shortest course back up to regrouping with miss Compa and miss IF," BT said as he point towards the guild member and nurse-in-training's current location before swiveling its eyepiece towards the woman in front of it. "You also appear to have difficulties neutralizing the target."

"You can say that again," Neptune mumbled.

"Tch! You oversized robot, I thought I got rid of you!" the mysterious woman turned around and shouted as she struggled to cut off the tethers with her blade. ""

"He's been through worse, lady. Try getting your arm torn off or impaled by a— oh…" the militia pilot commented as he threw the shurikan-shaped bomb beside the woman as he stood up and looked at his titan. "This plan might work after all. BT, how's your core?"

"Core ability at maximum charge capacity," BT replied.

Right as she freed herself from the second magnetic tether and turned around preparing to charge into BT, the white-haired woman was then pulled into some sort of gravity well coming from the projectile Cooper tossed under her feet moments ago.

' _Me? Lose? But how?'_ The woman thought to herself as she struggled to fly out of the ordinance's grasp, not prepared for what came next.

' _Good,'_ Cooper thought to himself pulled helped Neptune off the ground. "Use it."

"Understood. Flight Core Activated."

The two gimball-mounted missile pods on BT opened out and expanded from the titan's back, revealing a tremendous amount of cluster missiles underneath. The pods doubled as a jetpack for the titan, as BT entered into a VTOL flight mode now hovering above everyone.

"Pilot, I advise that you and miss Neptune get to cover immediately, danger close."

Cooper nodded at the warning as he and Neptune proceeded to get behind BT and avoid the missile attack.

"Or is this because of my dwindling power? No… I won't believe it!" she shouted at the titan and its two allies. "I won't be defeated like this!" The mysterious woman held her sword in a guard-like stance to brace the incoming attack. Still trapped in the miniature black hole vortex, her eyes widened in shock as she observed the vanguard-class titan deploying and firing its special weapon.

With BT's big blue eyepiece set on the snared woman as the titan flew up, its rocket pods unleashed a stream of cluster missiles towards its target in a manner that could only match a certain mecha anime. Each launched projectile made an audible shriek sound along the way until there were none left in its compartments.

Now at a safe distance from the barrage, Neptune stared in awe at the Macross missile massacre that was BT.

Meanwhile, Cooper could've sworn that he had just overheard the CPU mumbling "Justice rains from above!" to herself as they slowly began approaching the area again.

"This isn't over, Neptun— **AAAAAAAAAAAAHHH!** " the woman's threat abruptly turned to a scream as the barrage of rockets combined with the gravity star's explosion sent her skyrocketing in a cloud of dust and debris.

As soon as the last explosive fired from its pods, BT slowly descended back on to the ground where Cooper and Neptune leisurely made their way towards the settling dust.

"So, did we get her?" the transformed and exhausted Neptune asked as she was slightly limping.

After a second or two of staring intently at the smoking crater, BT turned to its two companions. "My scans do not detect any readings of her or her remains in this vicinity, she must be nearby."

"You're sure you didn't just blow her to smithereens?" she asked, struggling to stay upright.

"Negative. Scanners indicate that the target was not dismembered or vaporized at the time of flight," the titan replied, pointing in a direction ahead of the group. "Based off the explosion trajectory, hostile appears to have landed in that direction."

"Then what are we waiting for? We need to go get her—uuuugh…" she sheepishly replied before suddenly fainting and reverting back into her human form.

"Hey, easy there kid," Cooper said as he caught the lilac-haired girl from collapsing on the ground. "You're not going anywhere in your condition," he added before turning his head at BT and sighing. "Great, looks like I'm going to have to be the one chasing after her."

"My apologies, pilot. The flight core does not appear to be optimized for precision firing."

"No, no. Not your fault, BT. I should've known that people like her would be too stubborn to kill that easily," the militia pilot replied, remembering his fight against a certain Northstar mercenary that refused to die the first time. Then again, if the woman was still alive, he could try interrogating some answers from her, including why she was sent to kill Neptune. He then carried the semi-conscious girl toward his titan before continuing. "Regroup with the others and keep her safe. I can handle it from here."

"Uuuuugh… out of juice… sooooo tired…" the lilac-haired girl sluggishly said as she was lifted up by BT.

"Like I said, you're in no condition to fight"

"Understood. I advise that you exercise with extreme caution, as the target may still be capable of resistance," the large titan replied.

"Don't worry BT," Cooper reassured his titan, pulling out a MK6 Smart Pistol that originally belonged to Captain Lastimosa.

Designed as a last resort to swiftly track and eliminate hostiles with an advanced target lock, the 'aim bot' firearm was reserved only to the best of veteran pilots among marauder corps ranks. Painted in an olive drab and orange highlight of militia-colored camo, the smart pistol was a reminder of his late mentor, and a sign to himself that he had truly become an inducted SRS pilot.

"I don't plan on letting her escape until I get answers," he said as he loaded a magazine into the pistol before running off.

* * *

From a small distance within the canyon forest, a certain woman slowly stood up from the crater surrounded by wrecked trees and ground that was her fall.

"Whew...at least I got away from them..." The exhausted and injured white-haired woman said before transforming in an envelope of light similar to that of Neptune.

As the light died down, it revealed a young teenage woman with dark red eyes and long, flowing black twintails tied with blue and black ribbons. She wore a steampunk-like dress with gold trimmings that revealed a large amount of her bust, a black choker with a blue ribbon tied on it, black arm warmers with white frills and gold highlights, and thigh-high dark blue boots.

' _Can't believe I lost to Neptune, and now my Hard Drive Divinity is off,'_ the girl sighed in pain. _'Oh, what a day, getting ambushed like that…'_ she continued, shaking her head in disbelief.

"Curse that oversized piece of junk and that robot ninja," grumbled the twintailed-girl as she cursed herself for not clearly killing the titan and pilot when she had the chance to. "No, I won't accept this!" she said before her injuries caused her to kneel back down in a collapsed state for several minutes.

' _It was an unfair 3-on-1 fight,'_ she thought to herself. _'It was supposed to be a 1-on-1 against Neptune, and I would've easily—'_

Just then, some rattling from the trees and shrubs were heard from behind her, followed by a faint humming sound with three distinct beeps. Out of the bushes, she suddenly felt a hand grabbing her shoulder and the barrel of a gun pressed down on the back of her head from a certain male pilot.

"Eeeek!" she screamed in terror.

"Alright, game's over. You have the count of three to explain who you are and why you tried to kill us before I put a bullet to your head," said Cooper as his head emerged through the shrubs and bushes.

 _'Oh no, I'm done for!'_ the now transformed raven-haired girl thought to herself in horror. _'He's gonna kill me. 'He's actually going to execute me, a goddess!'_

For once, the girl truly felt a sense of dread she would have never expected herself to experience; getting killed not by a fellow CPU she was at war against, but a person who could easily be considered a second-class citizen of HER nation. How could she– a goddess– be butchered no better than livestock?

"Wait a moment..." Cooper suddenly said to himself as he approached closer and starred at the girl's eyes. "You're not that crazy bitch that tried to kill everyone earlier," the confused pilot said before easing his grip on the teen's shoulder and placing his MK6 Smart Pistol back into its holster, upon realizing his mistake of hastily rushing into the heat of battle; something his former mentor would always criticize him for during training.

Besides the SRS, 6-4, and several other selective branches, majority of militia soldiers weren't exactly known for their temperance and ability to distinct friend from foe at the spur of the moment. But neither were the IMC by any means better. In the young pilot's mind, Lastimosa would've probably been ashamed of Cooper if he realized how close he was to spilling blood of an innocent bystander. It was one thing for the IMC to orbital bombard a single colony and put the blame on 'uncooperative civilians'; it was another for the Frontier Militia to go against their cause and become just as vilified as the IMC.

' _He isn't the IMC. He isn't the villains that would wipe out entire worlds for the sake of so-called 'order','_ Cooper thought to himself. No, he REFUSED to become the very demons that he and many others dedicated their lives against.

The raven-haired girl was still frozen in shock before slowly beginning to realize the sudden change of events.

"Sorry bout' that," the pilot said calmly, reassuring the girl not to fear him before lending out a hand to help her up. "Didn't mean to scare you there, thought you were someone else. You alright there?"

"Y-yeah," the girl stammered across her words as she grabbed Cooper's hand and proceeded to pull herself up, now surprised at the pilot's change of tone towards her.

Through his helmet visor, the exhausted titan pilot couldn't help but notice the girl's age and appearance compared to that of Neptune and the others. In fact, the raven-haired girl appeared no older than him when he first enlisted into the frontier militia. He just hoped that someone like her didn't have to experience the same horrors he had.

"Damn… sure looks like something happened here," the young militia soldier said to himself, as he examined the surroundings before facing the raven-haired girl again. "Jack Cooper, frontier militia," he greeted to her before continuing. "Don't worry, you're safe now, miss… uh… your name?"

"Noire," the raven-haired girl introduced herself as she regained her composure.

' _Noire? Noir? Like the French word for Black?'_ Cooper questioned to himself before shaking the thought off.

"W-why are you here, anyway?" she continued.

"I'm looking for some white-haired maniac that might've passed by. And judging by the looks of it, must have crashed here just moments ago," he replied, gesturing his hands. "You know, yea high? Holds an unreasonably sized sword one-handed? Speaks a bit highly of herself? Ring a bell by any chance?"

"Well, there was someone going down that direction after landing here," Noire replied, pointing in the direction ahead of her. "Like, really fas— *cough*"

"Hey-hey, take it easy," the pilot quickly caught the stumbling girl on his arm before glancing at her several injuries. "You're not in good shape." Cooper was by no means a medic on the battlefield, but experience on the front lines has certainly more than taught him to know a wounded individual when he sees one.

"Huh?" Noire jumped up as she noticed the numerous cuts and scrapes left on her body.

"Jesus," said to himself. "Don't tell me that flying little-miss-homicide maniac must have attacked you before running off?"

"I-I'm fine you know!" the girl recoiled back is denial as she got herself back up again. _'More like YOU three were the ones that attacked me in an unfair fight,'_ Noire thought to herself. "It's only a bunch of scratches, nothing to cry over. In fact, I was able to fight her off before she ran away!"

"Still," Cooper raised an eyebrow at her remark. "Doesn't hurt to be sure, especially with those monsters flying around earlier," he continued. "There's a frien—… err, ally, of mine who can help with this kind of stuff. She can patch up your wounds in no time, hang on."

Cooper than turned around as he pressed a small communicator underneath his helmet. To Noire, the young pilot appeared to be attempting to signal or talk to someone else, as his head was away from the girl's face, but with no luck. She could try using this opportunity to try and backstab him, but just like the militia pilot said, she sure as hell wasn't in any good fighting shape. And even if she was able to get the upper hand on him, there's no telling if she would survive against reinforcements.

Coming to terms with her current predicament, Noire gave a sigh as she held back from drawing out her rapier and decided to take advantage of the pilot's ignorance. _'That was a close one,'_ she thought to herself as she held back from pulling out her rapier. _'I thought I was a goner back there for sur—'_

"Gotcha!" Another voice screamed as the twintail black-haired was grabbed and pushed into the ground by Neptune.

Proceeding behind her a short moment later were IF and Compa riding on BT's back.

"Waaaaaah?!" Noire screamed as the two fell back down into the crater. "But wh-what? Like, wait! Why?!"

"What in the hell?" Cooper facepalmed in confusion.

"Nep-Nep, you shouldn't be running out like that on your own," the concerned nurse-in-training said to her friend.

Not noticing her friend's comment, Neptune had a confused look on her face as she appeared to be grabbing the twintail brunette's, 'bust' while pinning her facefirst into the ground. "Heyyyyy, you're not that evil lady from earlier! What gives?"

"Oh for the love of—, wrong person, Neptune" the pilot sighed as he tugged her off the helpless girl. "Just get off her already…"

"Holy camoly!" Neptune shouted as she looked around her surroundings while getting dragged off Noire by Cooper. "What happened here? Looks like someone dropped a meteor on this place, huh."

"Way to leave us behind, Cooper," IF said in a frustrated tone towards the pilot, referring to herself and Compa. "We'd still be stuck behind if it were your buddy here."

"Wait, how'd you all even get here in the first place? I didn't even contact BT yet," the militia pilot responded, as he yet again helped Noire back up.

"As soon as BT lifted us over that roadblock you ditched us at, he told us that you were heading in this direction. And then there was Neptune waking up and trying to run ahead of us," she added before pulling out Cooper's Devotion LMG and tossing it to him. "You dropped your gun, by the way. Here."

"Oh Iffy," the lilac-haired girl casually said. "I knew you'd wanna ride on top of BT as well. He's like a free mount AND party member! What could go any better?"

"Oh, put a sock in it…" IF replied at Neptune's comment, still somewhat furious for herself and Compa being left behind by the others.

"Well, at least you're all here," Cooper answered, attempting to defuse and derail the current situation. "So BT, found anything?"

"Negative. Unable to detect marked target within 5 kilometer radius," BT commented. "Pilot, it appears that the target has escaped our reach."

"Oh wait, lemme guess… you let her get away, didn't you?" Neptune cried out. "You traitor!"

"No, she was long gone by the time I got here," he replied before pointing towards Noire. "Turns out, that crazy woman who attacked you and BT ended up trying to kill a passerby here right before fleeing."

"Sheesh, talk about a sore loser," Neptune joked. "Doesn't she know attacking civilians gets you a -50 karma penalty and raise bad ending event flags?"

"Sore loser or not, I _really_ want to believe that targeting civilians in this 'console war' is considered a war-crime," Cooper added, before turning to the pinkette. "Anyways, you mind checking up on her wounds, Compa?"

"Okie dokie mister Cooper!" Compa cheerfully smiled.

"Hey wait!" Neptune interrupted. "We're not a free clinic, you know. Why aren't we charging her money for the max heal? Don't tell me you're just lusting after her body, you lecherous horndog!"

"First of all," Cooper pinched his head in frustration. "Unlike you, I'm not some extortionist who blackmails people for personal gain. Second, considering that the explosion sent miss psychopath crashing in this area, we're still partially responsible for what happened to her over here."

"So you're just doing it out of guilt than," Neptune jeered as Cooper simply ignored her last statement.

"All righty," Compa said as the approached the raven-haired girl with a first-aid kit in hand. "Leave it to me, miss… uh… uh… uh…?" She continued with a confused look on her face.

"Oh right, you all don't know each other," Cooper chimed in as he introduced them to each other. "Everyone, this is Noire. Noire, I'd like you to meet Compa, IF, and Neptune, the idiot that can't seem to get herself out of trouble."

"Hey, I heard that!" Neptune complained as her comment simply went on deaf ears, much to her annoyance.

"And right over there is BT, my titan," the young pilot said as he gestured over to the large humanoid mecha.

"Greetings," the mechanical being raised a welcoming hand. "I am BT-7274, a vanguard-class titan of the militia SRS, Special Recon Squadron," it continued. "You may call me BT."

' _BT… so that's the robot, or titan, that nearly killed me back there,'_ Noire thought to herself. _'But militia… that doesn't sound like Avenir to me. Are those two from the civil war going on in Lowee? If so, that begs the question; why would they come all the way here with Neptune? Either way, I'll need to be careful around them, that's for sure.'_

"Noire? Ooo, that's a fancy name," the lilac-haired girl commented. "I bet you don't have friends and stuff."

"Wha-!?" the ravenette teenager stammered in shock.

"Agreed, the surname Noire appears to derive from the French word Noir. Based off her appearance and mannerisms, it is very likely that she was born into a family of high nobility," BT added. "Those raised under high socioeconomic status have been known to act 'disconnected' towards fellow peers."

"See? Even the big robot here thinks she has no friends."

"I must correct you, miss Neptune, that correlation does not equate to causation."

Cooper simply made a quiet snicker at BT and Neptune's remark. Now that he thought about it, Noire does sound an awful lot like a name given to some haughty rich aristocrat child. He had to admit, even this Planeptune preteen had her moments, sometimes. Though quite a bit more self-awareness and less tact than BT's 'humor,' unfortunately.

"Why you! Ugh!" the raven-haired girl screamed in outrage. "Oh, is that the way you greet someone you just meet for the first time?!"

"To her, yeah…" Cooper shrugged as he thought to himself. _'Hey, at least IF and I aren't the only ones here putting up with Neptune's idiocrasy. That doesn't make me feel any less bad for the poor teen over here, though.'_

"Oh lighten up, will you? It's just a joke." Neptune giggled. "I was just trying to be funny here."

"You need to learn the 'when' in being funny, Nep." IF smirked.

"Agreed," Cooper interrupted. "As of right now, we have a flying maniac on the loose as well as a key fragment to still locate," he added before turning to the large titan besides him. "Any luck on that latter, at least?"

"I have run several wide-range scans of the area during you and miss Neptune's confrontation against the target. Unfortunately, I have found no traces of the key fragment located in this canyon region," BT blinked shook its eyepiece in disappointment.

"Damn, it's already getting becoming sundown as well," Cooper said as he looked at the sky. "We should probably head back to Chian's place and tell her those monsters are clear, as soon as Compa here is done fixing you up, of course."

"Here you go, all patched up!" Compa cheerfully said as she closed up her first aid kit.

"Oh, well that's convenient."

"It sure is," Compa nodded at Cooper with a thumbs-up. "I just needed to clean the cuts bandage them all up. And she'll be back on her feet by tomorrow."

' _People here sure as hell heal fast,'_ Cooper thought to himself.

"Thank you, this helps a lot. Ah… was that, Compa?" Noire asked looked over her bandage wraps. "You're Neptune's friend, right?"

"Yes, we've been best friends since I found her along with mister robot and mister Cooper."

' _Best friend? We've barely even knew her for less than 2 days!?'_ Cooper retorted in his mind.

"Speaking of heading somewhere… " IF said as she walked up to Noire. "Wasn't this place closed down because of those dangerous monsters roaming the trade route? What's a person like you doing over here all alone?"

"Good point," Cooper added. "Could've sworn that Chian mentioned this area being pretty much abandoned."

' _Something's fishy here…'_ IF thought to herself. Though she did feel bad for the girl's current predicament, the brunette couldn't help but feel that her getting attacked at such a 'convenient' time and place was quite suspicious.

"I… um, well…" Noire stumbled across her words nervously. "I'm not sure too, and…"

"What? Then you're… a fellow amnesiac?!" Neptune asked in excitement.

"Huh? Oh, oh y-yes!" Noire quickly nodded at Neptune's statement before clarifying to herself. "That's right, amnesia. I can't remember a single thing before I was attacked by that scary woman. That has to be it!"

"Hey BT" IF asked as she tapped on the titan's sides. "She's not lying now, is she?"

"Although voice pattern analysis indicates a lie," BT replied. "It is usual for cases of individuals suffering from traumatic experiences to express false-positive error results when it comes to memory loss."

' _Great, two amnesiacs…'_ Cooper thought to himself. _'At least she's nowhere near as much of a headache as Neptune, so far. I hope to god BT's right, or else we're walking right into a trap here…'_

"Oh no, what should we do?" Compa cried out in a concerned voice as she asked Noire. "How are we going to help you get back home?"

"Hey kid, you happen to know who your parents, siblings, or guardians, are?" the pilot added, only for her to shake her head in response. "Or at the least, remotely what they looked like?"

"I know how you feel, Noire. It must be harsh without your memory," Neptune said, patting the raven-haired teenager's shoulder before an 'idea' sprung in her head. "Oooh, I know! I'll help you! Like, I've been without memory longer than you—"

"You can't even help yourself, much less avoid trouble," Cooper sighed as put a hand on top of the lilac-haired girl's head before facing Noire. "I say we head back to Chian's place first, see if anyone there happens to know you or something. Or at the very least, just get our thoughts together and make a plan from there."

"I… guess that helps…"

"If that's the case, why not drop her off at the basillicom?" IF suggested. "They should keep her safe in custody."

"What?!" Noire replied as her eyes widened in shock. _'If they took me back, my cover would be blown for sure.'_

"You're kidding, right?" the young pilot replied. "I'd rather not give them another reason treat all of you like crap again after that stunt I pulled on them earlier today."

"Pffffft! Not just that," Neptune snickered. "They'll probably try arresting Coop for kidnapping young girls into some kind of sex ring," she continued before getting a *thwack* in the head by the annoyed pilot. "Ouch!"

"Mister Cooper's right," Compa added. "We shouldn't go over there! Those goons don't know how to handle a girl right."

' _I'm more afraid of how those 'goons' treat anyone in general…'_ Cooper thought to himself.

"I know," Neptune jumped as another idea popped in her head. "Why not have her tag along with us until her memory returns ?"

"Wha—?!" Noire said in surprise as her face became flustered. "Tag along, as in… together?!"

"Hold up there…" Cooper turned to Neptune. "Do you even know what you're saying?"

"I sure do, buddy ol' pal," the lilac-haired girl said as she gave the militia pilot two thumbs up before grabbing the ravenette twintails by the waist. "We're memory loss buddies, so both of us can stay together."

"One of you is already a handful enough—" Cooper was trying to say, before getting cut off by Compa.

"Yes. It's safer than being at the Basilicom, like mister Cooper said. Plus, it's fun with more friends too!"

"Until we , our best option is for miss Noire to stick together with us."

"You're sure you're fine with this?" Cooper turned to ask Noire. "Not like I could stop you even if I wanted to; your choice, after all. Plus, once that kid has her eyes dead set on something…" he added, referring to the lilac-haired girl dancing around in joy behind him. "She won't stop until it's hers, sadly,"

"Um… it's not like I don't like the idea, but…" she said nervously. "I was just surprised… that's all."

Barging Cooper out of the way, Neptune suddenly rushed in front of the fidgeting girl. "I'll take it you don't mind then! In that case, welcome aboard the party, Noire!" she said happily, shaking the ravenette's hands. "We have Taco Tuesdays, Wayback Wednesdays, and even weekend raid-bosses, even if the GM is a total scrub."

", we still have a mission to turn in." IF said towards the couple in the middle.

"Yeah," Cooper added. "It's getting late. I say we return to the city, rest for the night, and try finding the key fragment somewhere else tomorrow."

"Now that the road it cleared of those birds, Chian might be able to offer us more quests across Lastation," IF nodded in agreement as the party along with its newest member, Noire, made their back towards the city.

' _Th-that was close…'_ Noire thought to herself as she looked back on the lost battle against Neptune. _'Looks like I better go along with what they say for the time being.'_

"Righty-o!" Neptune cheered. "Onwards to Lastation! Follow me, the MC!" she continued, walking in the opposite direction from town.

"This way, actually" BT said, pointing towards the specs of light over on the horizon.

"Oh right... I, uhh… I knew that already!" Neptune giggled as she turned to walk in the direction BT was pointing in. "I was just testing you all, that's all."

"Sure you were," IF sarcastically remarked. "Knowing you, we'd probably end up trapped in some underground military facility detour or whatnot," of which the young militia pilot besides her merely whistled off to the side at her comment.

Much to the group's unawareness, the wrist mounted device on Cooper's arm was faintly blinking in a dark-blue light as BT navigated the party back to town.

* * *

 **-End of Chapter 5-**

 **A/N: Hey everyone, Megazord here! I never imagined myself having an entire chapter just for this battle. Hopefully it wasn't too long. I hope you guys also happened to enjoyed the little Overwatch and Macross references I put during BT's flight core. Just too bad Northstar's special is a bit underrated in multiplayer mode.**

 **Anywho, Noire's finally joined the party (for now). What adventures await her and the others when it comes to Avenir? Will the party eventually find out her true identity, can she keep her facade? And when it comes to Cooper and BT, what new powers might await them after their fight with Black Heart? All questions answered in due time.**

 **As a side note, here are a few review replies (I really should consider doing these IN the reviews instead, shouldn't I):**

 **Server lock** **: If I recall correctly, Hyperdevotion Noire was pretty much a spinoff title in its own continuity (aside from having an self-insert MC). But to answer your question, would it not be unreasonable to assume that the CPUs are fueled by sharite crystals the same way the fold weapon is powered by the Ark; it just _works_? For all we know, the Ark in the Titanfall universe and Shares within the Neptunia storyline could very much be one of the same; just a rose by a different name. To be fair, Respawn hasn't really offered too much details in-depth behind the Ark's lore, so there's that...**

 **Delta Death : Yup, exactly where I'm somewhat trying to go at. To Cooper, IF basically seems like the only other voice of reason among the party, besides BT, of course. On one hand, the militia pilot sees a little bit of himself in IF at the time he was her age. On the other hand, he'd prefer that none of them have to suffer the same harsh realities of the frontier battlelines like he had to. Perhaps out of some 'brotherly' instinct, or survivor's guilt from Lastimosa's death, who knows?**

 **Anyways, next chapter will include another logbook entry. Please be sure to rate, review, or comment. Besides alleviating my insecurities and inflating my ego (sarcasm), it also lets me be sure on what to improve on, or what to try adding more to during progress. Thanks!**


	7. Chapter 6: Familiar Struggles

_Disclaimer: the Hyperdimension Neptunia series is owned by Idea Factory International, and the Titanfall series is owned by Respawn Entertainment. Both franchises belong to their respective owners._

* * *

 **-Chapter 6: "Familiar Struggles"-**

* * *

Cooper's Logbook:

 _Our search for the Key Fragment in Lastation's canyons didn't go as planned. We were ambushed by some woman who appeared to know Neptune. We managed to stop her, but not without her running off and managing to attack another passerby civilian in this area, unfortunately._

 _Whether or not she happens to be another 'goddess' like Neptune, or associated with this 'Avenir' group I keep hearing about, she's far too dangerous to be left alone. If it weren't for all the weird things I've came across in the past day or two, I'd say we're still being chased by IMC forces again, just not on Typhon._

 _One way or another, we're going to get answers; for both the key fragment's location and our new maniac out to kill us. Luckily, the roadblock outside the city's been cleared, so we should be able to explore the rest of this landmass pretty soon._

* * *

The newly-formed party of six soon arrived outside Chian's place right before the start of dusk.

"Home sweet home!" Neptune shouted as she barged right through the door.

"Would you cut that out?" IF sighed as she entered the building. "Sheesh, no need to be so loud."

"Based off data analysis, I have come to the conclusion that miss Neptune's voice constantly exceeds 85 decibels on a regular basis; in which prolonged exposure can lead to hearing loss," BT commented outside the building in its usual monotone voice.

Cooper, along with the others, simply chuckled at the comment before the young pilot turned to Noire, who appeared to be pulling out a pair of glasses.

"So, this place remind you of anything? Ring a bell by chance?" the young pilot asked.

"No, nothing at all," Noire reluctantly shook her head as she adjusted the red, half-frame spectacles to 'disguise' herself with.

"Shucks, and I thought we'd have some sudden character event pop up for you," Neptune groaned.

"By the way," the raven-haired twintails said to Neptune. "You said you lost your memory, but are you sure you're okay?"

"Heh-heh, well, not that great, really," Neptune nervously scratched the back of her head.

Just then, an idea suddenly lit up in the lilac-haired girl's mind. "Oh, I know! Let's try banging our heads! I'll do it on a pillow and you can try the wall right over ther—"

"…How about no?" the young pilot sighed as he lightly bopped the scatterbrained girl's head. "Last thing we need is for her to become just as clueless as you," Cooper joked, turning towards the ravenette in question with a headshake that clearly conveyed a warning of 'don't get dragged along this girl's stupidity'.

"Awwh, and it was a good idea too!" Neptune giggled as she rubbed the spot Cooper lightly smacked her at just moments ago. "See, with Coop here bullying me and all, I'm just a delicate little flower," she said towards Noire. "And you seem like the hard-headed tsundere type, so I figured—"

"Figured what?" the raven-haired girl asked before tensely smiling with a look of irritation on her eyes. "Oh wait… here, let me cover your face with a pillow instead."

"Tsundere?" Cooper raised an eyebrow in confusion.

"Searching network files. Pilot, the term 'tsundere' appears to describe an individual that acts in hostility or disdain in order to compensate for a repressed feeling of affection." BT commented off to the side.

"That seems like a pretty specific word, don't you think?" Cooper replied sarcastically. "Could even be used to describe one of my last relationships, I'd say," the militia pilot joked to himself, not realizing how Noire had suddenly picked up a cushion off a nearby chair.

"Noted," BT simply nodded. Both the robotic titan and its pilot were soon brought back from their aside conversation by a certain lilac-haired girl's shriek.

"Ah?! Oh come on now, I'm just joking, you know," Neptune backpedaled with a fearful expression. "Your eyes… even with those cute glasses on… they're scary," she nervously smiled at Noire before breaking into a panic and running behind the militia pilot. "Come on! We're not simulating a murder scene now, are we? Help me here, Coop, IF!"

"You're only digging your grave deeper," Cooper remarked as he nudged off the genki preteen clinging to his back. For him, it was nice change of pace seeing another face more than willing to deal with Neptune's hyperactive energy. In fact, part of him couldn't help but smile at the predicament the girl found herself in due to her running mouth. Still, he'd prefer not having to deal with the repercussions of Neptune getting herself into trouble, especially when it meant even more delays for himself and BT from completing their mission.

Sighing, the young pilot placed a hand on the ravenette's shoulder as he shook his head. "Believe me, she's not worth your energy," he told the disguised CPU, defusing the current situation.

"Hmmph," Noire huffed in disappointment. "Fine, if you say so. Just please tell me she's not always like this."

"I'd be lying if I said that, sadly," Cooper replied jokingly. "Just ask BT over there," he said, pointing at his vanguard-class titan standing outside the building.

"Correct," BT nodded with its eyepiece. "Miss Neptune's personality appears to change drastically only in her altered form."

"Hard to believe they're the same person," IF shrugged.

' _You're telling me,'_ Noire thought to herself.

"Looks like Nep-Nep and mister Cooper are already friends with Noire," Compa said cheerfully. "Oh, that reminds me. I didn't realize that glasses on you," she said, noting the new pair of spectacles on Noire's face.

"Why didn't you bother having them on earlier?" IF asked with a suspicious look on her face.

"Your vision does not appear to be significantly impaired, either," BT added.

"I… ahh, um…" Noire stammered across her words. "…I-I had these on me the entire time! I just didn't realize they were in my pocket until now, so…"

"Ooo, I know why!" Neptune shouted. "You're a cosplayer that just got caught in the middle of an unlucky situation! Those glasses were a part of the costume, weren't they?"

"Y-Yeah! I remember now!" Noire eagerly nodded. "I was a cosplayer and, um… I totally love dressing up in fancy outfits too! I-I even remembered making all these clothes from scratch!"

' _Somebody has a bit too much free time on their hands,'_ Cooper thought to himself.

"I knew it! Now you have some of your memory back!" Neptune jumped in joy. "But, you cosplaying all the time is, well, kinda creepy, don't you think?"

"What—?!" Noire replied in a flustered manner. "Don't call me creepy! I can't help it, I have my reasons!"

"Aside from miss Noire's enthusiasm towards the act of dressing up," BT said to its militia companion. "It is important that we report our mission findings to miss Chian immediately."

"Agreed," Cooper said as he examined the dining café, looking for a certain blue-haired mechanic. "Let's see where Chian is around here—"

 ***BOOM***

A large explosion sound came from the other side of the room, of which the party turned their heads to. Soon after, Chian emerged through the nearby door, coughing and hacking in a puff of smoke as she walked into the room before noticing Cooper and the others.

"*Cough* *Cough* Oh hey, you're all back," she said, waving off the small debris of smoke around her. "So, did you all kill those monsters?"

"Designated targets in the location have successfully been eliminated," BT answered through the open window.

"What the big-ole' robot Beetsy said!" Neptune added. "He went all camper-mode and was like 'pew-pew', 'bang-bang' at the oversized chickens and blew them up with his giant sniper rifle," she said, making finger-guns and waving them around in the process.

"Really?!" Chian said in astonishment. "That's great! Now I don't have to worry about supplies for a good while, thanks!"

' _One less thing to worry about, considering how Avenir's been killing the market lately,'_ the blue-haired woman immediately thought to herself.

IF nodded to herself. "I guess our first assignment in Lastation was a success, after all then."

"Minus the flying maniac that destroyed BT's plasma railgun and got away before we could catch her," Cooper muttered to IF.

"Oh cheer up, Coops!" Neptune mockingly patted the pilot's back. "I'm sure your robot hombre has tons of other OP weapons you've never even told us about!"

"Ouch, sorry to hear that. My old man should be stopping by soon. I'm sure he'll be able to fix up your gun up in no time," Chian sympathetically remarked at Coopers statement, before leaning to the side slightly and noticing the new member of the party. "Huh, looks like you've got someone new there. Who's she?"

"Oh, her? This is Noire," IF said, introducing the twintail ravenette to the woman. "She was hurt and lost her memory, so we brought her along with us."

"Yeah, Noire here ended up getting attacked by the same person we're currently after before flying away," Cooper crossed his arms. "We were hoping that you might happen to know her yourself by any chance."

"Is that so? Sucks to hear that there still bandits lying around." Chian said to herself, scratching her chin. "…Wait a second," she suddenly added, slowly approaching the raven-haired teen and examining her. "Actually, I think I've seen you before…"

"Wha—?!" Noire said in a panicked look, as Chian was carefully observing her face to face. "No, wait! What are you talking about?"

"Really now?" IF said in a suspicious glace at Noire.

' _This isn't good,'_ the disguised goddess thought to herself. _'If they find out who I am, I'm DEAD!'_

"Yeah, you do look familiar, almost like…" Chain examined the black-haired teenager several more moments before shrugging and backing away from her. "…Nah, it couldn't be. Nevermind."

' _Th-That was close…'_ Noire thought to herself.

"Couldn't be who, exactly?" Cooper replied.

'— _?!'_

"Almost thought she was Lady Black Heart for a moment there…"

' _Black Heart?'_ Cooper thought to himself. _'She doesn't mean the 'goddess' of this place, does she?'_

"Hmm…" IF replied, giving Noire a very stern look.

'— _Eeek!'_

"…But, I guess not," the blue-haired woman shook her head as she sighed. "Guess I got my hopes up again, like always."

"So you don't know who she is after all, do you?" Compa said is a disappointed frown.

"Sorry, doesn't seem like it," Chian said reluctantly towards to party. "I don't recall anyone else around here having someone gone missing either."

"Well, it was worth a shot, I guess," the young militia pilot shook his head. "It's already starting to get late. We should probably head to place to rest for the night."

"Agreed, I'm getting a bit tired and hungry after everything that's happened today," IF nodded and then turned to the blue haired woman. "Chian, we're going to be leaving now, but is there anything else?"

"So soon?" Chian asked with a puzzled look on her face. "Let me at least treat you all to some good eating."

"Food?!" Neptune and Compa nodded, with glistening eyes.

"It's fine, you don't need to," Cooper casually replied to Chian's offer. "After all, didn't you say that you've been struggling to make ends meet lately? We wouldn't want to put any more strain on business than needed."

"Nonsense," Chian insisted. "You all saved me and other businesses around here over several months' worth of lost supplies and deliveries on that trade route. It's the least I can do to thank you all, really."

"Pilot, it has been over 72 hours since you've last acquired a full meal," BT added. "The opportunity to rest and recuperate out on the field has been known to significantly increase morale during operations of extended length and greatly valued among militia soldiers."

"Gee… I didn't know you cared about me _that_ much," the young pilot lightly joked at his titan's almost fatherly-like statement. Although he more than knew by now BT's 'caring' nature to protect him at all costs, he couldn't help but crack a joke or two at his titan's less than self-aware statements.

"Protocol 3: Protect the pilot. We cannot uphold the mission if you are dead."

"Good point," Cooper admitted, rolling his eyes at BT's remark.

"Yeah, BT's right Cooper," IF said. "You shouldn't be pushing yourself too far. It's no good trying to fight on an empty stoma— Wait… _seventy-two hours straight_?" she suddenly asked towards the pilot and its vanguard class titan. "How are you not collapsed yet?"

"Coop must be on some kind of super-trendy-fad-diet, ain't that right Compa?" Neptune suggested.

"I'm not sure, Nep-Nep," the concerned nurse-in-training said. "But either way, mister Cooper shouldn't be starving himself like that," Compa protested.

"I highly advise that we use this as a chance to recover lost stamina and formulate a plan for the journey ahead," BT suggested. Right as Cooper's stomach began to growl lightly soon after, much against his delight.

"You know what?" he turned to Chian, then sighed. "On second thought, maybe I will take you up on that offer," he added right before slowly removing his pilot helmet and plopping a seat on one of the many barstools that lay throughout the cozy restaurant. "I could use a bit of rest after dealing with flying-miss-homicide."

Removing his helmet revealed a youthful, yet somewhat grizzled face of young adult in his late teens with an unruly shaved cut of hair. Although his appearance nowhere matched the face of a scar-ridden veteran, he wasn't by any means a green soldier straight out of training either. Certainly someone who's had their fair share of experience on the battlefield to say the least, despite his younger-looking. It was obvious that the miniature time device on his arm had regressed his age by about ten years or so as a side-effect of surviving the Fold Weapon's destruction.

"Wha—?!" Noire's eyes widened in surprise, not expecting something behind all those metallic pieces and tidbits covering the pilot. "Y-You're a human?!"

"Yeah, what about it?" Cooper nodded in confusion while rolling up his sleeve, revealing his lightly scarred skin as he pointing at it. "See? All skin and flesh," he remarked sarcastically at Noire, who still appeared to have a dumbfounded look on herself.

"Figured you were just human," Chian smirked confidently in anticipation, thinking to herself soon after. _'Now that I think about it, didn't old man MacAllan once wear something like that, too?'_

"Could've fooled me the first time," IF shrugged with a grin, remembering the first time she saw Cooper without his helmet back on the cargo ship from Planeptune to here.

"Does everyone here some kind of thing against robots or something?" the young pilot shook his head and said to himself, wondering about all the dirty looks he and BT received from many of the Lastation citizens, as well as the comment made by his earlier 'fight' against Black Heart.

Cooper then turned the corner of his eye to Chian, who appeared to have a small frown on her face and seemed intent on replying to the young pilot's comment that she happened to have overheard. But much to his surprise, the blue-haired woman abruptly changed the topic, turning her frown around and looking at the others as well.

"I should probably give you all give you all something to drink as well," Chian told the group with a slightly nervous flinch before walking off, obviously trying to hide her concern over Cooper's earlier remark.

As the mechanic made her way back towards the kitchen counter, Cooper turned to the ravenette teen with a gloomy look on her face.

"You alright there?" he said, waving his hand in front of Noire's face and suddenly catching her attention. "Looked like you seen a ghost or something,"

' _Yeah, that my potential murderer is just a human…'_ Noire thought to herself.

* * *

"Urmghbrug!' Sof' derifosh'—!" Neptune attempted to speak with her mouth full as she scarfed down on a large cheeseburger in her hands. "…Ah Chian, this burger is JAW DROPPING!" she added upon finishing her bite.

"The soup is so tasty!" Compa said gleefully, taking another spoonful of the vegetable soup she and the others ordered as they sat along the counter top. "I feel all warm inside."

"Nothing beats a home-cooked meal, I'll tell you that," Cooper said to the others, sitting along the far-end of the bar alongside the others and enjoying what appeared to be some kind of pilaf dish. "Haven't had something this great in ages."

"It's my mother's pride menu," Chian smiled happily at the party. "Glad to know you're all enjoying it."

While Cooper, Neptune, IF, and Compa all continued to enjoy the small feast, Noire stared at the untouched dishes in front of her side nervously before turning towards Chian. "It's really lavish, are you sure I can just join as well?" she asked her.

"Just dig in and enjoy," the blue-haired woman nodded with a thumbs-up. "After all, food tastes better with more people."

"Yeah," IF insisted to the ravenette sitting across from the others. "Just don't expect it to come with some kind of pillow fight, though," she joked, Cooper along with the others chuckling.

"Th-that's not my fault," Noire pouted with an annoyed stare at the young guild member. "It's not like I wanted to do anything to her," she added, twirling her hair as she had a slightly flustered look on her face.

"Your previous comment indicates otherwise," the large, robotic vanguard-class titan stated, followed by a small burst of laugher from the three other girls along with Cooper as well.

"BT's got a point, you know," the militia pilot lightly chuckled, much to Noire's embarrassment.

"By the way…" Chian turned towards the large, lumbering titan standing just outside the café. "You're sure I can't get you anything, big guy? Like some kind of juicy battery, or power generator, at least?" she asked.

"Unnecessary," BT noted from behind the window "My shields and energy supply appear to be slowly recharging on their own."

"Right," Cooper turned around and jokingly remarked at his vanguard-class titan. "I'll keep that in mind the next you activate your core and go into shut-down seconds later," he mocked lightheartedly.

"I detect sarcasm," BT replied in its neutral robotic voice, with Cooper and the others sharing a small laugh soon after.

Leaning slightly back on his barstool, the young militia pilot continued to enjoy what felt to be his first relaxed or home cooked meal in ages, considering all the field rations and he's lived off of as a rifleman-turned-pilot. It was at that point when Cooper had begun to reminisce about his time as an enlisted soldier out on the frontier, and how, under a sudden turn of events, was suddenly thrusted into the seat of his late mentor's titan and fought off the IMC from destroying the militia's homeworld of Harmony. The thoughts racing through his head soon came to a halt as he suddenly overheard a cry from Neptune; or more specifically, her complaining about something.

"Bleh," the energetic preteen stuck her tongue out in disgust, holding a spoonful of vegetable chunks from her soup in her hands. "Who added these eggplants?! They deserve to die!"

"Nep-Nep, you don't like eggplants?" Compa asked as she curiously stared at her own soup, identical to her friend's order.

" _Don't like_? More like hate!" Neptune repeated the nurse-in-training's question with an irritated tone before continuing. "How can you all eat these purple husks?!"

"Trust me," Cooper answered the preteen with a raised eyebrow as he held an identical bowl of soup. "You don't exactly get the privilege of being picky when you're starving out on the field," he told her, remembering one of many instances in which his squad was forced to 'live off the land' during an overextended skirmish on a barren planet, with rations and other resources beginning to dry out scarce. Trying to avoid any suspicious food or ingredients was one thing; simply disliking a properly prepared vegetable was another. Besides, there was no need to be so vocal about it, especially when their host is right beside the party.

"You do realize you could just _not_ eat the eggplants, right?" Noire suggested to the lilac-haired preteen in an annoyed voice, which appeared to simply fall on deaf ears much to the ravenette's misfortune. _'How could someone like her have defeated me?!'_ she thought to herself.

Neptune suddenly sprung up from her sickly-like state, her eyes brightly lit with an epiphany. "I got an idea! Let's have Noire eat it!" she shouted in brimming excitement at her so-called 'plan' before continuing. "After all, food can sometimes help jog memories, right?"

"A stimulation of senses familiar to the individual's memories has been known to—" BT began to comment, but was then shortly cut by Noire's surprised expression.

"Nep, you're not a small kid," IF told the overly-energetic preteen before giving her an irritated glare. "Stop being picky and eat."

"On the contrary, miss IF," BT suddenly interjected. "Miss Neptune's mannerisms in her current state appear to match that of a ten-year-old child's thought patterns," the titan suggested. "Based off my diagnostic scans, she doesn't appear to have any hypersensitive reactions to the squash plant either."

"W-What are you two saying?!" Neptune protested in confusion. "Don't you know that forcing food on someone is dangerous? Especially for such a delicate body as mysel—"

"Says the girl who plummeted fifty feet toward the ground," Cooper retorted, recalling how he and Neptune had crashed like a meteor along with the mysterious white-haired woman.

"Fifty-feet!?" both Compa and IF asked in surprise, of which Cooper was about to explain to them before suddenly getting cut off by Neptune.

"That doesn't matter," she argued, pointing at the eggplants on her spoon. "Those things are the apocalypse I tell you! Oh the horrors! The horrors!"

"Well if that's the case, you shouldn't be giving them to others then!" IF got up and stood next to the lilac-haired preteen. "Just eat, and maybe this food might jog _your_ memory," she told her with a smirk.

What came next, much to Cooper and everyone else's surprise was IF attempting to force-feed Neptune, as if she was nothing more than a bratty child. The poor Planeptune CPU shook and wobbled as she struggled to avoid the spoonful of eggplants being stuffed into her mouth, albeit gagging in a comedic manner. The others, meanwhile, simply observed what was happening between the two in a varied mix of amusement, humor, and slight hint of horror.

"I hope we're not being too loud here," the pinkette nurse-in-training said with a warm, if not slightly worried, smile towards Noire; the two, along with Cooper, having pretty much finished their plates as IF and Neptune were continuing with their . . . theatrics.

"Yeah, hopefully we're not giving you a hard time with all this ruckus," the young pilot added with a shrug, then took a small drink of water.

"Not at all," Noire answered back shyly at the two. "It's just that, I never had such a lively dinner before, so…" the twintailed teen assured them with a nervous smile.

"…That it reminded you of your family?" Cooper asked with a look of genuine concern at the ravenette, who simply nodded back with a halfhearted frown, not sure how to feel about her entire situation as the militia pilot soon continued. "Don't worry, we'll find your parents yet," he assured the disguised goddess before giving her a warm, friendly smile.

Much to Noire's surprise, the way Cooper had spoken seemed nothing like the pilot that had impaled her back just hours ago. She began to wonder whether this was even the same person she fought against earlier today. Things considered, the ravenette just hoped that her cover wasn't blown and discovered by everyone else.

' _Perhaps he's not such a threat after all,'_ she thought to herself. _'At least, so long as he doesn't know who I am,'_ the disguised CPU considered, remembering how the young pilot was once merely inches away from ending her life in an instant. _'Still, I'll need to be careful. Especially towards… that,'_ she added, turning her attention towards BT and recalled how the lumbering titan had foiled her plans last minute.

Her train of thoughts was suddenly thrown out the window when she noticed Cooper walking off with his own and Compa's empty plates. "W-Where're you going?" she asked.

"Off to help Chian with the dishes; the least I could do for treating us all for dinner," Cooper shrugged. "Done too?" the young pilot then suggested, to which Noire simply nodded before placing her empty bowl on top of the small stack in Cooper's hands as he made his way towards the back room.

* * *

Walking into the backroom kitchen that connected both the restaurant and large hangar-like garage, Cooper soon came across Chian, who appeared to be staring intently at a small sticky note held in her hand with a noticeable frown on her face.

The militia soldier glanced at the woman as he placed the empty ceramics into the nearby sink before turning towards her. "Something on your mind?" he asked.

"C-Cooper!?" Chian looked up at the young pilot in mild shock before answering his question. "It was my old man. After you five left, I called my old man about you and BT," she told him, raising the sticky note in her hand. "He was going to stop by, but looks like work caught up to him last minute; had to leave out of town for a few days," the blue-haired mechanic added, shaking her head in disappointment. "Man, and he was actually looking forward to meeting you all as well."

Cooper just sighed and shook his head along with Chian as the two stood there. The young pilot couldn't help but understand how disappointed the latter must be feeling right now; knowing how it must feel to be separated from close friends or relatives. But then, another thought came up in his head, remembering the mechanic's attitude right before dinner, specifically.

"…Say, you seemed to act a bit strange when I joked about everyone here hating robots," Cooper said in a halfhearted chuckle. "Don't tell me you had a bad experience with robots," he said in a sarcastic manner, attempting to lighten up the mood before continuing. "So, what's up?"

"No, nothing like that," Chian waved off at Cooper's sarcastic comment before answering his question. "It's just that, what you said earlier reminded me of why everyone here in Lastation is struggling…" the young mechanic added with a deep sigh. "It's those Avenir bastards," she then muttered underneath her breath, tightening her fist in frustration.

"Hmm?" Cooper raised an eyebrow in confusion, unable to pick up on the last words she said.

Chian flinched lightly. "Ah, forget I said anything," she tried to assure the young militia pilot with a nervous smile. "I'm fine, really."

"…Speech pattern and heartrate readings indicate that something appears to be bothering miss Chian," BT suddenly intervened, approaching the two as he entered through the raised-roof factory doorway and earned a surprised look from both Cooper and Chian, as well as an annoyed glare from the former.

"It's not us, is it?" Cooper said to the blue-haired mechanic with a light chuckle, breaking the awkward moment as he nudged his head at the Vanguard-class titan, clearly unamused at BT's startling of the poor woman.

Chian shook her head and offered a weak smile at Cooper and BT. "No, it's not you two," she stiffened before sighing deeply. "It's Avenir, they've been causing nothing but problems for small businesses across Lastation," she told the pilot, who simply fired back with a confused glare. "Wait, you don't know Avenir?" she asked.

"BT and I aren't exactly from _around_ here," Cooper gestured at his titan before continuing. "So I guess you could say this is the first time we've heard about this 'Avenir' that everyone here seems to be talking about," he told her, withholding from her his 'incident' with the Basillicom priest earlier that day as well as cracking into the city's satellite tower.

"Fair enough," Chian shrugged leading Cooper into the large factory room alongside BT. "Avenir's a technology company that sprang up a few years ago, pretty much ruling Lastation ever since," she explained to them. "They make everything from goods to weapons, and monopolize the industry entirely. Because of that, people like me can't even compete with them to make a living."

' _Sounds an awful lot like Hammond Industries or Vinson Dynamics,'_ Cooper thought to himself before talking to Chian. "Let me guess, it has something to do with robots, doesn't it?" he asked her.

"Probably, might explain why people wanted to pick a fight with you two earlier today, like you joked about," Chian replied with a mild chuckle, despite the frown she gave off. Clearly this ordeal was putting quite a strain on her peace and livelihood, from what BT and its pilot could observe. "What I do know for certain is that they're definitely not the ones creating jobs," she sighed. "There's already been a few businesses that closed shop just because of them too."

"Damn," the young pilot sighed in pity. Putting two and two together, he could see how some greedy business like this 'Avenir' could cause so much strife and hardships in such a short time, assuming they were just as reliant on machinery and dogmatism as the IMC are. If what she's saying is true, it might also help to explain why the priest he manhandled earlier that day had the expression of pissing his pants upon seeing BT. Just then, Cooper's thoughts were soon interrupted as BT began to speak up out of the blue.

"We appear to have company," the large titan noted to Cooper and Chian, pointing a finger towards the kitchen/café doorway at which the two turned towards, immediately noticing four girls eavesdropping on their conversation. Stacked on top of each other starting from the bottom were Neptune, Compa, Noire, and IF; who were staring at the two before suddenly getting spotted by BT.

"Uwaa—!" The four girls' eyes widened in shock, startled by the sudden attention they received. "Oooof!" they uttered with a thud upon collapsing on the floor.

"What are you all doing here?" Cooper shook his head at the group, specifically the lilac-haired girl groaning in soreness on the ground.

"Spying on your important conversation, silly!" Neptune suddenly sprung up with enthusiasm, the others nervously backing away. "We can't miss out on that important dialog and exposition, now can we?" she told Cooper with a cheerful grin, who clearly didn't appear to be amused by her antics. Noticing this, the Planeptune CPU decided to change the subject, immediately pointing to the mysterious mechanical device on the other side of the open garage that caught her attention. "What's that doohickey, by the way?" she asked.

"Oh, that?" Chian groaned, putting a hand over her chin in frustration and picking up the object. "Just another of my failed inventions messing up on me. Yet again."

"Again?" Cooper asked, raising an eyebrow in confusion. "Perhaps BT here could help you with that," he suggested, gesturing towards his titan.

"Thanks, but no thanks," Chian offered with a weak smile before frowning again. "This is a fight for me and me alone against Avenir," she answered, pondering intensely at the object in her hands.

IF folded her arms in thought, approaching the others. "What do you mean?"

"Scanning. Item does not appear to contain a bio-verification mechanism," BT added, starring at the unknown part in the woman's hands before looking up at the blue-haired mechanic. "Elaborate."

Chian let out a deep sigh before explaining everything to the others. "Truth is… this place isn't actually run by my parents. Well, not both of them, just my mother," she explained. "My father created Passé, and we were pretty much one of many different suppliers of machinery to this district," the mechanic elaborated. "Sure, we didn't exactly live like billionaires, but we made an honest living for ourselves. At least we used to, until Avenir showed up and bought up all of the shippers, the suppliers, and customers. Despite that, my father refused to sell Passé to those rats. But then one day… he died in an accident…"

"Ooo, like some kind of hitman assassina—? Ouch!" Neptune began to speak, but was shortly cut off by Cooper bopping her in the head.

"That does sound awfully convenient for a so-called accident," IF noted suspiciously.

"After he died, I shut down Passé and worked with a family friend of my parents over at his workshop; the same man I wanted to introduce you all to," Chian continued. "However, business got so bad and slow over the years, that… that even he had to close down his business as well and find work elsewhere. That's when I eventually decided to come back here and reopen this factory again," she told them before pausing briefly, then holding up the invention in her hands. "Every year, the Lastation Basilicom holds a Technology Expo."

"Technolo-what?" Compa asked in a confused expression. "Is it like a festival thingy?" the doe-eyed pinkette looked up in concentration.

"Accessing files…" BT interjected. "The Exposition miss Chian explained involves companies showcasing their recent advances in technology."

"Oh, so it's like a contest or something?!" the nurse in training suggested.

"Or a chance to market yourself and promote your invention, I'm assuming…" Cooper suggested.

"Not just that," Chian explained. "The winner of the Expo does gets a huge cash reward, but more importantly, they also get the chance to meet the CPU. If I can just win the tournament and meet Lady Black Heart, maybe I can get these bastards out," she told them, lowering her head and focusing intensely on the mysterious invention in her hands. "Not only have they stolen the jobs from any other businesses in the nation, they're building factories everywhere. Lastation's pollution is already bad enough. If it keeps up like this, I'm not sure if any people will be able to live here at all."

Building factories everywhere and polluting worlds? Those strings of words seemed to echo a way too familiar experience to Cooper. More specifically, his bitter feelings towards the IMC constantly destroying pristine worlds through over-industrialization. Sure, this landmass just looked like a smog-filled city, but part of him had really hoped that it was just coincidence and not the Interstellar Mining Corporation simply by another name. It seemed like the making of another planet being transformed into a wasteland through his very eyes.

Noire shook her head subtly, realizing that it wasn't her people giving up faith in her, but rather… her people _needing_ their goddess' help more than ever. Still, she'd prefer not revealing her true identity in front of everyone, which could lead to even more confusion, and possibly her death.

"Look," Chian added, "I appreciate you all wanting to help, but there really isn't much you can do," she said to BT and the others, placing back down the busted invention. "Like I said, this is something personal to me."

"Come on! There's gotta be something!" Neptune huffed adamantly. "Can't we just try to take down the company?"

Chian huffed dismissively. "Good luck. They're a massive company, with millions of Credits and a fully mobilized army."

"Oh please! Don't you see?!" Neptune argued, running over snuggling right next to BT's arm. "We literally have a bonafide-badass war-machine mecha right beside us. Coop here just needs to say the word, and this baby will go on a rampage and annihilate Abellir to the ground! MUAHAHAHA—"

"Do I even _want_ to know how you mispronounced it that badly?" Cooper sighed exasperatedly as he tugged Neptune off the titan. Though he had to admit, if this Avenir was anything like the IMC grunts back on Typhon, he'd probably have no problem dealing with them at all, especially with the new 'upgrades' he and BT seemed to have acquired. Still, the militia pilot was sure there was more to it than just bust into their factories and blow everything up.

"Although I have calculated over thousands of methods and outcomes to infiltrate their main facilities in order to, 'take out' Avenir, as miss Neptune has described…" BT stated to the party.

"And how many of those involve blowing up a Fold Weapon?" the militia pilots interrupted sarcastically before BT proceeded to continue.

"…I strongly advise against declaring a one-man war against the entire Lastation military," the vanguard-class titan warned.

"Your friend's right, you know?" Chian shook her head. "Avenir's got the damn nation in their pockets, and now they pretty much own it. To attack any Avenir factory out of the blue would be considered an act of war on Lastation, and we'd be technically considered in the wrong," she told everyone with a sigh.

"So that explains why the Basilicom here seemed to be giving us the boot," IF huffed and folded her arms. "They have their goons placed all over the place."

"Such a waste too, since nobody knows where Lady Black Heart has even gone off ever since returning from Celestia," Chian nodded in response. "I want to take these jerks down as much as anyone else in this city, but they're basically impenetrable. So the only thing I can see working is to outdo them at the expo this year."

"I can tell you already that that's pointless," Noire suddenly rebutted with a sigh grabbing everyone's attention.

"W-What?" the blue-haired mechanic winced before gritting her teeth in frustration, realizing what the ravenette meant.

"Well, you seem pretty knowledgeable on this kind of situation," IF said to Noire with a raised eyebrow and suspicious glare.

"I… I guess I'm starting to pick up some of my memories back," the twintailed teenager frowned nervously before pushing the situation back to Chian. "Plus, she said it herself, didn't she? If it's true that Avenir has the nation it its pockets, then the Basilicom would always choose Avenir as the winner. My guess is that they this expo to see which inventors or smaller companies pose the greatest threat."

"A reasonable observation," BT commented. "If miss Noire's information is correct, there is also the possibility of this corporation 'forcibly' integrating their adversaries' technology to meet their own needs instead."

"But—!" Neptune and Compa were about to protest, only to be met with a solemn stare from Cooper's narrowed eyes before the two stood back down.

"A downhill battle either way," the militia pilot quietly said to himself, with him and the others aside from Compa and Neptune knowing full well how delicate of a situation they were in, as well as how important it was to weigh their options at hand.

After a few moments of silence and thinking, Noire had proposed an unusual idea. "Well than… how about doing some work for Avenir?"

"Huh?" the others, except for BT and Cooper, shouted in disbelief.

"See! I told you that twintailed-tsundere skank was nothing but a traitor— OUCH!" Neptune blurted out in compulsiveness, only to be met with another light whack by the militia pilot as she rubbed her noggin in soreness. "Oh come on, you know I'm right! Why should we be working for the bad guys?!"

IF blinked in thought. "Wait a second… that's actually a pretty brilliant idea," she suggested along with Cooper nodding in agreement.

"What do you mean, Iffy?" Compa asked.

"Think about it," IF replied to her pinkette ally. "If we start working for Avenir, we can topple them over from the inside,"

"It's simple, really," Noire added. "We shut down their operations from within, and watch their empire come crashing down right as Chian presents her invention to the Lastation citizens," she suggested with the blue-haired mechanic smiling in agreement.

"Standard espionage tactics; I like it," Cooper nodded. "Plus, it'll give BT and I the chance to scan around their factories, find out where this 'key fragment' is located," he told them with a shrug. Despite BT's ability to extract most of the city's potential 'dirty' secretes and data, none of which has been scanned or analyzed yet, the thought of conducting covert operations resonated in Cooper's mind. It reminded the militia pilot of the numerous amount of spies or 'moles' recruited or employed on both sides back on the frontier, and how their gathered intel had changed the tides of several battles throughout the war. It also helped that this would probably the closest he'd ever get to when it came to actual stealth missions, considering his less than effective use of the active camo utility on his pilot suit. _'Keep your friends close, and keep your enemies closer,'_ he thought to himself them with a grin.

"The ability of an adversary to underestimate their opponent is a valuable asset in warfare, pilot," BT noted to its companion.

"Exactly," Noire nervously smiled in agreement to the militia pilot and titan before returning back to her own thoughts. _'And I'll use this to find out what else the Basilicom knows of Avenir…'_

"Hmm… Still, it doesn't feel right…" Neptune adamantly noted in frustration. "And here I was hoping we would bust into their lair and blow everything up like a 90s action-flick," the lilac-haired girl jeered.

"Well none of us like Avenir either," IF frowned at the thought of basically being at the mercy of this company. "But idealism isn't going to pay for our living expenses, now is it?" she spoke to the lilac-haired preteen in a matter-of-fact tone.

"Let's bear with it, Nep-Nep," the nurse-in-training suggested to Neptune, attempting to ease the girl's uneasiness just as much as her own.

"Hmm…" the Planeptune CPU hummed in her thoughts. "Well, if you say so Compa," she said reluctantly as the two walked off.

"Sure, just ignore us why don't you?" IF huffed in annoyance, seeing that the two were off on their own adventure away from herself and the others.

"At least they're in agreement," the young pilot chimed in with relief, trying to look on the bright side of things.

"You three sure have it tough, huh?" Noire asked with a slightly concerned smile at Cooper, BT, and IF.

"You don't even know the half of it," IF shook her head in annoyance.

"Well, not as tough as fighting off a horde of mass-murdering robots programmed to shoot on sight," Cooper joked with a weak smile, earning a nervous frown from Noire, as well as two confused looks from Chian and IF. "…It's a long story," he added, heading back towards BT.

* * *

 **-End of Chapter 6-**

 **A/N: Hey everyone, Megazord here! I think it's safe to say that this story was** **long** **overdue for a brand new chapter, wouldn't you say. Again, I'd like to apologize for the bit of the hiatus between this and my other xover story, as well as the dialog heavy-chapter. Felt like Chian's explanation of Avenir was something that needed to hit home to Cooper on a personal level. As for the old-man that happens to be a family friend of Chian, well... I'll give you all a hint, anyone remember** _ **Demeter**_ **from the first game's final mission? (Yeah, neither did I) That being said, I feel like I should clarify on a few responses on the reviews, so here we go:**

 **nopeite nopeite nope** **: Yeah, I'm currently in the process of going back and revising many of the earlier chapters. A bit of tedious work, since FF doesn't exactly notify readers when a chapter has been readjusted or edited.**

 **Guest** **: The whole joke about STR or whatnot is meant to basically be an inside joke within the series (or really, any RPG in general), with Neptune's erratic personality and tendency to… well… break the fourth wall.**

 **56006** **: Or like the Guilty Sparks? Perhaps. Though I feel like most of his charm, in truth, comes from his lack of human awareness and 'emotions' so to speak. The lack of tact on poor BT's end does make for some… interesting conversations, if I do say so myself.**

 **Bottle of sasuage ( & EL Hunter)** **: If memory serves, according to R;B1's storyline, they travel from Planeptune Lastation Leanbox Lowee back to Lastation. And yeah, I do intend to add a few of the makers like MAGES down the line real soon.**

 **As always, please be sure to rate, review, or comment. Besides alleviating my insecurities and inflating my ego (sarcasm), it also lets me be sure on what to improve on, or what to try adding more to; and most of all, whether or not you all enjoy it. Thanks!**


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